BartBlog

Excerpt:
Reading her book of lies, Going Rogue isn’t worth the time either. “Authors” should be able to read a book before they can get one published, but that is obviously not the case with the GOP’s favorite MILF. Thank God for ghostwriters, huh, Sarah?

Once again the “barracuda” is getting attention from the corporate media and also from liberal and progressive writers who feel the need to refute her.

Guess what? There is no need. She has already marginalized herself by her own idiotic statements and will not be a player in national politics, despite the fringe lunatics that still support her.

In a book full of complaints, Palin writes that she doesn’t like to hear complaints. Without going through every detail of her whining about Katie Couric’s softball interview, her horrible trip to the principal’s office with Charles Gibson, her revision of campaign history, and her flat out lies about Alaska politics and her family, it’s clear Palin is a moron and totally unqualified to lead anything other than a teabag rally.

So, let’s just leave it at that. Palin deserves no attention and I am not going to write another word about her after this. She’s not worth it. There are more pressing issues facing this country today.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d17-Sarah-Palin-isnt-worth-a-word

Excerpt:
President Obama plans to announce in next year’s State of the Union address that the administration will focus on deficit reduction and job creation in 2010.

According to POLITICO, which is often used to convey administration messages to Congress, top aides involved in planning the address said Obama “wants to focus extensively on cutting the federal deficit in 2010 – and will downplay other new domestic spending beyond jobs programs.”

Economically and practically speaking, it is a common sense that deficit-spending needs to be reduced. It is also common sense that there can be no real economic recovery without job creation and a massive reduction in unemployment.

On the political side, however, it is uncertain whether these proposals will be sound economic and fiscal policy, or merely a political reaction to the heat the administration has taken over government spending from Republicans. Democrats have to reassure voters that domestic spending is not reckless, but the only way to do that is with immediate positive results. Republicans, however, seem to be most critical of domestic spending and tend to overlook the largest chunks of spending – on entitlement, defense and war appropriations. The proposal to reduce the deficit by cutting domestic spending, therefore, seems to be more political in nature than economic.

If the Obama administration is truly serious about reducing the deficit, creating jobs and bringing the economy out of recession, perhaps it is time to end the wars. Invest our tax dollars in America, not Iraq and Afghanistan.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d17-Obama-to-focus-on-deficit-reduction-and-job-creation-in-2010

Excerpt:
From the earliest reports, it was obvious that the corporate media dropped the ball on the coverage of the Ft. Hood shootings. Now there is yet more evidence that the media did nothing more than parrot the military’s version of what happened.

According to The New York Times on Nov. 7th, police Sgt. Kimberly Munley heroically faced the alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and put an end to the rampage by shooting him several times while sustaining several wounds herself.

According to The New York Times on Nov. 12th, a second police officer, Senior Sgt. Mark Todd, is the one who finally subdued the alleged gunman.

While that makes Sgt. Munley no less of a hero if either of the versions of the story are accurate, it does underscore one inescapable fact: In a rush to get a story out, media outlets simply report whatever they are told by the government and/or military without bothering to check the facts.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d13-Ft-Hood-Yet-more-media-inaccuracy

Excerpt:
President Obama has delayed a decision to deploy more troops to Afghanistan until after he returns to U.S. soil from a trip to Asia that he embarked upon today.

Officials said that in the meeting, the eighth in the Situation Room on Afghanistan and Pakistan in the last two months, Mr. Obama pressed for clarifications on a series of questions: Where are the off-ramps for the military? What is the exit strategy? When will Americans and their allies hand responsibility to the Afghanistan government? Can the Afghan government improve its credibility?

According to the Times, a few hours before the war council met on Wednesday, Mr. Obama slowly walked through the rain-soaked grass at Arlington National Cemetery and visited Section 60, where 577 troops from Iraq and Afghanistan are buried. He stopped by the grave of Spec. Ross McGinnis, a Medal of Honor recipient who was killed nearly three years ago when a grenade was thrown into his vehicle in Iraq. The President also spoke with relatives of other troops who were on hand when he passed by.

The Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eickenberry sent a cable to the White House yesterday strongly objecting to emerging plans to send tens of thousands of additional forces to the country, and has sent multiple classified cables to Washington over the past week that question the wisdom of adding forces when the Afghan political situation is unstable and uncertain.

Eikenberry is not just another envoy. Before resigning his Army commission to take the job as U.S. ambassador in Kabul earlier this year, Gen. Eickenberry served two tours of duty in Afghanistan, the second as head of the Combined Forces Command. After the second Afghan tour, Eikenberry was Chairman of the NATO Joint Military Committee. He is a West Point graduate with advanced degrees from Harvard and Stanford.

All we can hope for is that this is a signal that our Commander in Chief will not be bullied by the Pentagon into making impulsive decisions, that he will carefully weigh the consequences of any decision regarding the deployment of troops, and listen to all of his advisors. An exit strategy, or at least clear military objectives in Afghanistan are what are needed at this point, not just a short-sighted escalation of the war.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d12-No-decision-on-deploying-more-troops-to-Afghanistanyet

Excerpt:
The Senate would have liked to honor veterans on Veteran’s Day by passing a bill to improve veterans’ benefits and health programs. Thanks to Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), the bill was put on hold.

The bill is known as the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009 (S. 1963). According to Military.com, the centerpiece of S. 1963 is unprecedented support for family caregivers of severely wounded veterans, those injured since 9-11.

Sen. Coburn (R-OK) prevented the bill from coming to vote today by putting a hold on it, which a legislative tactic to prevent passage of a bill. He sent a letter to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), saying that the bill needs to be fully debated because it will cost taxpayers an estimated $3.7 billion over the next five years and it is unclear how it will be funded.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) called Coburn’s stance on the bill illogical, criticizing the Oklahoma Republican for supporting war funding while blocking health care funding for veterans. “Where was he when we were spending a trillion dollars on the war in Iraq?” Reid asked. “That wasn’t paid for. I didn’t hear him stopping the bill from going forward at that time. I think he should become more logical and understand we have people who are suffering.”

Perhaps the relatively modest $3.7 billion cost over five years for the Caregivers bill could be funded by diverting some of the $190 billion in supplemental war funding that is planned for 2010.

Did Harry Reid finally grow a pair?

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d11-Caregiver-bill-for-veterans-put-on-hold

Excerpt:
Any topic that can be construed as a conspiracy theory is a writers’ worst nightmare. One of the ironies in dealing with the plethora of information that is available through print, television and electronic media is that it often does not add up and at times is contradictory. The more information there is, the more inconsistencies that can be found. That does not make any topic a conspiracy theory, it just makes it what it is…questionable. A good example is what allegedly happened at Ft. Hood last week.

I must, however, start with a few conversations I have had with ex-military personnel since the incident.

A retired MP, Michael Martinez also said: “No way! That would be impossible. Even if he had two semi-auto pistols [according to reports he used a 9mm and a .357 revolver to gun down over 40 people] he would still have had to stop to reload and someone would have jumped his ass. Most people on base aren’t carrying [weapons], but MPs are and they would have been there in a heartbeat.”

Michael Gaddy, an army veteran of Vietnam, Beirut and Grenada writes: “The facts as presented by the Army and the media [about] the shooting at Fort Hood just don’t compute. People on the ground have told me cell phone towers were jammed to prevent unauthorized dissemination of information after the shooting.”

A look at these articles in chronological order paints a very confusing picture. I am not even going to speculate on what really happened at Ft. Hood, but my bovine excrement meter is maxing out at the official story. I encourage you to read and come to your own conclusions.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d10-Ft-Hood-Official-story-full-of-holes

Excerpt:
President Obama is considering several options for Afghanistan, all of which involve an escalation of the conflict, increasing troop levels and increasing spending. The only question is how many more troops will be sent.

That option most likely would call for sending three Army brigades from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y. and a Marine brigade, for a total of as many as 23,000 additional combat and support troops. Another 7,000 troops would man and support a new division headquarters in Kandahar, and some 4,000 additional U.S. trainers are likely to be sent as well, the officials said. The first additional combat brigade probably would arrive in Afghanistan next March, the officials said, with the other three following at roughly three-month intervals, meaning that all the additional U.S. troops probably would not be deployed until the end of next year.

Among the cost estimates the Pentagon is considering is $1 trillion over 10 years and some administration officials privately concur that the war could cost $700 billion to $1 trillion over the next 10 years. The request ultimately would depend on the number of additional troops President Obama sends to Afghanistan.

With the uproar over government spending with the proposed $90 billion per year health care bill, it is amazing that there is little talk about war spending. With the $578.6 billion spent in 2009 on the military and the wars, every American could have free health care and there would be enough left over to pay for a college education for every graduating high school senior. It may, indeed, be time to put government spending in perspective.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d10-All-options-considered-mean-more-troops-to-Afghanistan-and-more-spending

Excerpt:
According to a jobs report released in Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the official unemployment rate in the U.S. in Oct. 2009 is 10.2%. A broader measure that takes into account workers that have given up job seeking or are underemployed puts it at 17.5%.

The unemployment rate calculates only the amount of workers that are receiving unemployment benefits and are actively seeking work. It does not take into account those who have dropped off of unemployment benefits and those who are working part time jobs to make ends meet.

When those workers are taken into consideration, the rate is as high as 17.5% nationwide and over 20% in some states.

While the measures that have been taken do help, it is becoming obvious that the key to recovering from the recession is to stem the tide of job joss and create more jobs. There is no such thing as jobless recovery, unless of course, you work on Wall Street.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d7-Unemployment-rate-hits-102-but-broader-measures-put-it-at-175

Back in March I posted an essay on this blog by Robert Freeman, entitled The U.S. is Facing a Weimar Moment. The recent activity (or inaction) in congress is proving that to be a more accurate assessment of politics than ever.

Excerpt:
An article that I wrote regarding the thousands of Americans losing unemployment benefits while the Senate dithers received an overwhelming response from readers.

Today, the obstructionists in the Senate gave up on delaying the bill to extend unemployment compensation and it should should be passed soon. Perhaps the overwhelming response of people across the nation to many articles on that topic had something to do with that. I would like to think so.

As I pointed out yesterday, Democrats in the Senate have made comments alleging that the minority party is trying to stall legislation in order to prevent other Democratic priorities from reaching the floor. The minority party has succeeded in doing that by delaying legislation like this, which should have taken a fast track though congress.

In this commentary, I would like try to put what is happening in Washington into a historical perspective.

For that I must turn to an essay by Robert Freeman, published at CommonDreams.org on March 15, 2009. I posted the essay on this blog shortly thereafter and I am reposting it now because it is more relevant now than it was back then.

Mr. Freeman is a little-known writer in Palo Alto, CA who covers topics relating to education, history and economics. What he writes in this essay should sound hauntingly familiar to anyone who has been following politics in Washington for the past year. It is entitled The U.S. is facing a Weimar moment.

I could attempt to summarize this essay, but that would not do it justice. I’ll just say that the obstruction of the bills and policies of a “new” political party in power by a minority party has happened before in the 20th century…and the results were catastrophic. Freeman’s essay hits the nail on the head as to what is happening in Washington right now. I encourage you to read this in its entirety, because it puts the current political climate in our country in a very realistic, historical, and frightening perspective.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d5-GOP-Obstruction-in-the-Senate-may-be-history-repeating-itself

Excerpt:
According to a Democratic Senate ticker, almost 200,000 Americans have lost their unemployment compensation insurance benefits in the past 26 days since GOP Senators have blocked a bill to extend unemployment insurance. That amounts to over 7000 per day and still ticking.

The House bill, called the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act of 2009 (HR 3548), passed overwhelmingly on Sept. 22 by a 331-83 margin. The bill would extend jobless benefits to all states for 14 weeks, with an additional six weeks for states with more than 8.5 percent unemployment, and all without adding one penny to the deficit. The Senate version (S 1699) was introduced a day later and has since been stalled by bipartisan bickering.

With a popular bill that won a vote by margins of 331-83 in the House and 87-13 in the Senate, one may think it would be easy to get it passed. That, however, is not the case. Part of the democratic process in congress allows the minority party to slow down legislation in congress if they choose to exercise that right, and that is exactly what the GOP Senators are doing.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters in the Capitol today that GOP leaders are stalling intentionally in order to prevent other Democratic priorities from reaching the floor. “Even today they’re still stalling before we can pass this bill finally,” Reid said. “Perhaps Senate Republicans don’t think it matters to stall and delay, but it matters to the unemployed worker who so desperately needs this money.”

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d3-Nearly-200000-lose-unemployment-compensation-benefits-while-Senate-dithers

Excerpt:
According to an exclusive report by CBS News Investigates, “if you’ve been diagnosed ‘probable’ or ‘presumed’ 2009 H1N1 or ‘swine flu’ in recent months, you may be surprised to know this: odds are you didn’t have H1N1 flu.”

According to CBS, “with most cases [now] diagnosed solely on symptoms and risk factors, the H1N1 flu epidemic may seem worse than it is.” That does not mean it is prudent to pass on a vaccination if it is available. The CDC recommends that everyone should get the vaccination for H1N1. Without lab testing, however, it is impossible to determine the actual amount of H1N1 cases in the U.S. What little data is available, however, suggests the actual number may be far less than feared.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d3-Report-Swine-flu-cases-may-be-overestimated

Excerpt:
Let’s take a look at two big spending issues, defense and health care reform, and try to put them into perspective.

Recently, Obama signed the defense authorization bill without much objection from anyone. The cost: $280 billion for 2010 only.

Then there’s health insurance reform. Estimated cost per year: $90 billion.

Approximate cost of U.S. House health insurance bill over the next ten years: $894 billion, not including a Congressional Budget Office finding that it will actually reduce the deficit by $104 billion over the next ten years.

Approximate cost of defense authorization over the next ten years: $7 trillion.

People killed by U.S. defense operations per year: N/A, although 135 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq and 452 died in Afghanistan thus far in 2009 and over 1000 were wounded in Afghanistan in the past three months. Afghani and Iraqi civilian casualties cannot be counted due to lack of data.

Americans who die from lack of health insurance each year: Approximately 45,000.
Approximate savings to U.S. taxpayers from House health care insurance bill over the next ten years: $100 billion.

Approximate savings to U.S. taxpayers from defense appropriations bill over the next ten years: $0.

The government will always spend your tax dollars, so the real question is what is best to spend money on. Whatever gives the best ROI is a good place to start. Perhaps spending our tax dollars on Americans in America is a better idea than spending it on occupying third world countries.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m11d1-Putting-government-spending-in-perspective

I wonder how the pro-lifers who are against health care reform will react to this…

Excerpt:
Lack of adequate health care insurance may have contributed to the deaths of some 17,000 hospitalized U.S. children over the past two decades, according to a study by the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

“Thousands of children die needlessly each year because we lack a health system that provides them health insurance. This should not be,” says co-investigator Peter Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., director of Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins and medical director of the Center for Innovations in Quality Patient Care. “In a country as wealthy as ours, the need to provide health insurance to the millions of children who lack it is a moral, not an economic issue,” he adds.

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m10d30-Study-Lack-of-health-care-contributed-to-17000-child-deaths

Excerpt:
House speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed the House version of a health care reform bill today that includes a public option, which she prefers to call a “consumer option.”

Whether one is for or against a public option in health care reform, one clear distinction must be made. A public option is not a single-payer system and therefore, would not be available to most Americans.

Lost amid the ideological battle is the fact that only about 10% of Americans would be eligible to participate in the public option, even in its most expansive versions. The public option would be available only to people not enrolled in employer-sponsored insurance, Medicare, Medicaid or VA health care.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, took to the House floor to voice his objections to the legislation unveiled Thursday. “Is this the best we can do?”

“When you ask people in a poll, ‘Are you in favor of a public option that would be available to everybody,’ they say, ‘Yes,’ ” Sen. Wyden said. “I don’t think they’re going to feel the same way about a public option available to only 10 percent of the population.”

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m10d29-Pelosi-announces-House-bill-with-public-option-but-how-public-is-it

Excerpt:
Early this week, over 1500 banking executives gathered at the Sheraton hotel in Chicago for what is normally a tranquil, low-key event, the American Bankers Association (ABA) convention. Thousands of protesters from across the nation made sure it was different this year.

The morning protests started outside the Chicago offices of Goldman Sachs. A speaker on a megaphone shouted, “We’re here to tell Goldman Sachs, shame on you! Shame on you for helping bring this country to the brink of a depression!” The crowd responded, “Shame on you!” Organizers presented a list of demands for Goldman Sachs in a hand-delivered letter that was dropped off in the lobby, including that the bank stop resisting proposals for a Consumer Finance Protection Agency (CFPA) and that it donate the money set aside for bonuses to mortgage-modification programs. The protesters then marched down the street to the Chicago offices of Wells Fargo. There they also attempted to hand-deliver a similar letter to John Stumpf, the Wells Fargo CEO.

The march ended at the Sheraton outside the ABA convention, where demonstrators carried effigies of bank executives, including John Stumpf, former Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis and JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon. Some displayed “Wanted” signs bearing the faces of bank executives that read “Wall Street Robber Banker.” They carried signs with slogans such as “No Bonuses for Big Banks” and chanted sayings like “Bailouts? No thanks! Bust up big banks!”

The difference, however, between this demonstration and other recent demonstrations was summed up by a student at UW-Madison who attended the rally. “There was a clear agenda here and clear goals, not misdirected anger. There were people here from all walks of life – blue collar, white collar; urban, rural; young, old – it was a true representation of Americans united for a common cause.”

Read more here: http://www.examiner.com/x-23316-Madison-Independent-Examiner~y2009m10d28-Wall-Street-meets-main-in-Chicago

View a slide show here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/progressil/sets/72157622551109221/show/