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KathyinBlacksburg |
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Wed Apr 01, 2009 at 07:17:51 AM EDT |
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Web Page:
http://www.democracyupsidedown.blogspot.com
Email:
StandUp4Dems@gmail.com
Bio:
I've lived in Virginia for 29 years and been a Democrat for longer. I'm passionate about progressive issues, media reform, and advocating for the populist change we need.
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Sat Mar 20, 2010 at 14:07:15 PM EDT
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You have to laugh at Jon Stewart's remarkable satirize and spot-on impersonation of radical ideologue Glenn Beck. You can find it here. I recommend the Daily Show clip. It's very funny. But I know that too many low-information or high-hating voters take this man seriously. How low-information? Take a look at this article by Bruce Bartlett at Forbes. Tea Partiers are so ignorant they think that President Obama raised their taxes instead of cutting them. That's only one of the items they do not get.
On a daily basis, Beck tries to fan the ignorance and hatred of (and possibly foment violence toward) millions of America's people for no reason but that he disagrees with them and they are progressive. He's Ann Coulter, with a crew-cut and on steroids. (You'll recall Coulter once said that you should talk to liberals ("if you must") with "baseball bats.") But Ann Coulter always comes across as smug and snarky. Glenn Beck cries on cue. It is on cue because he conjures up the same tears during rehearsal (yes, rehearsals). This is staged to fire us the masses. It's a dangerous act and Roger Ailes is playing with fire.
Recently, Beck has taken to referring to progressives as "the cancer that is destroying our values," "socialists," "communists" and more. Daily his rants defame us. And we let him get away with it, or at least some of us do.
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Fri Mar 19, 2010 at 18:24:37 PM EDT
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You can go to this link to get the two versions.
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Thu Mar 18, 2010 at 16:34:48 PM EDT
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In the 1960s my father-in-law provided health insurance for employees of his small business. Little did we know how ahead of his time he was. A survey by the Small Business Majority found that even today only 46% of small business owners provide health insurance, but 76% of them struggle meeting their premiums. The 54% who do not provide coverage say they cannot afford it. Let me pause here: The majority of small business owners do not provide health insurance for their employees. It is their employees who most likely are caught in private individual plans which get slammed over and over and which get canceled at the drop of a hat. Some companies drive up the cost of policies solely to induce "high risk" patients to drop their policies. It is clear that both individuals and small businesses need both relief and reform.
Meanwhile, the upward trajectory of health care costs for small businesses continues. In 2009 costs are around 3.42 billion. MIT economist Jonathan Gruber estimates they will go up to around 7.43 billion in 2018. One of the most vocal opponents of health insurance reform is the national Chamber of Commerce, which runs particularly troublesome and questionable ads. They do not get it. Not only would health insurance reform reduce personnel costs, a real public option would could ultimately produce far greater savings. With Medicare overhead costing only 4%, private insurance pales in efficiency of delivery. Further efficiencies in delivery of Medicare services, such as elimination of over-payments to the so-called (fake) Medicare "Advantage" plans and greater effort at fraud reduction will drive home even more savings. (Proponents of reform failed utterly to explain these over-payments and their ruinous effect on the future of Medicare. It is the absence of reform which hurts Medicare.)
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Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 14:20:00 PM EDT
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Last week, increasingly neo-fascist and radical flamethrower, Glenn Beck, ironically urged his followers to leave their churches if they ever mention the words "social justice." It didn't occur to him that nearly every faith does. And so he bandied about absurd charges that social justice is "code word" for communism and socialism. It isn't. However, we do have abundant corporate socialism, which apparently floats right by him. As if the main thrust of his rant weren't enough, in such finely honed neo-McCarthyism, he added, turn in your minister to "the authorities," if they mention social justice.
The most outrageous aspect of this was his effort to turn American against American due only to their personal religious beliefs. Additionally, there is an (anti-) establishment clause in the Constitution. The framers would not be please, Beck's ignorance notwithstanding. The conservative answer to this no doubt will be to ban separation-of-church-and-state founding father Thomas Jefferson from school curricula, as they are trying to do in Texas.
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Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 11:26:44 AM EDT
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Here we go again. The cable layers and their ditch-witch are just a block away. It appears, one more time we will have to redo our lawn. Contractors will do their usual dig, fill (no smoothing), seed-and-straw toss. And homeowners will take two seasons to get our lawns back as they were. Even as I roll my eyes, I realize that upgrading the speed and quality of our service is long overdue. And we are among the lucky ones here in Blacksburg. At least we have "broadband." But it usually falls short of "real" broadband speeds. Many in rural Virginia don't have "high speed" at all. Enter the FCC. In its widely hyped announcement of expanded national broadband service, the FCC perhaps thought we'd cheer and go about our business.
However, Neiman Watchdog of Harvard University cautions that the FCCs plans to improve this nation's broadband position is far less than it appears. Here is just the teaser:
Bruce Kushnick writes that giant telecoms and cable companies -- and the lobbyists, think tanks and astroturf groups they fund -- have so corrupted the debate over broadband that what may look like progress actually amounts to small steps toward antiquated standards that taxpayers have already paid for many times over.
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Sun Mar 14, 2010 at 18:52:55 PM EDT
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Note: What follows is a press release from the Democratic Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY PASSES BUDGET INCORPORATING PRIORITIES OF SENATE DEMOCRATS
~ House of Delegates move towards Senate's position on K-12 education, public safety and health and human resources ~
RICHMOND-The Virginia General Assembly adjourned "sine die" today following passage of a 2010-2012 biennial budget that reflects many priorities of the Senate Democratic Caucus. While unwelcomed cuts were required, the Democratic-led Senate prevented the devastating and job-eliminating cuts favored by the House of Delegates and Governor McDonnell. The final budget agreement includes approximately $30 billion in general fund spending. The agreement makes reductions in K-12 education, health and human resources, and aid to localities, but does so in ways that will minimize the impact on services and jobs.
"As we worked to craft a Senate budget it became very clear that many previously unimaginable cuts would be necessary to produce a balanced budget. Since Governor McDonnell and the House of Delegates forced $4.2 billion in cuts, our priority was to make cuts in a way that would cause the least harm," said Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple (D-Arlington), chair of the Virginia Senate Democratic Caucus. "This budget process was about minimizing the damage and I think we have found the best way forward. We successfully reduced the devastating education cuts proposed by the House, found ways to keep cops on the street, and will preserve the healthcare safety net for vulnerable Virginians."
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Sun Mar 14, 2010 at 11:50:54 AM EDT
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Virginians have barely awakened to the nightmare that is their own public school system under the dominion of the dominionists. Thanks to Bob McDonnell and the Party of No, schools upon schools will ultimately close. NCLB has already rendered 1/3 of all US schools as "failing," based upon its rigged measure. Buildings paid for with our tax dollars will be given away via Mickey D's charter "initiative." What then?
Thanks to new legislation, "virtual schools," and their virtual "education," enabled by one of their own literally writing a recent bill to "regulate" such "schools," are poised to proliferate even as public schools are shuttered. One more governor refuses to get that starving public education hurts Virginia and the nation. But the incessant tax-cutting monster must be served (sarcasm). See Elaine in Roanoke's article here and numerous diaries by teacherken's for more on this subject. According to the Roanoke Times, Carroll County, VA is now the "model" for the entire state. (Bet NOVA thought it was.) "Virtual school" get virtual results. Education is not packaged online "curricula." The PC is no substitute for teacher-student and student-class face time and cooperative learning. But the educational bloodletting via the massive cuts to education will likely never be overcome in our lifetimes. The evidence for this mounts...
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Sat Mar 13, 2010 at 11:49:28 AM EST
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The ill-titled public option's second life is apparently over. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi declared the public option dead yesterday. You can read more here. It's not in the reconciliation, she said. Thus ends any hope that real competition will occur in health care insurance.
For at least a couple of weeks now, progressives have been taken for a ride. The public option was alive and well. As you may have heard, as of yesterday we had fifty votes (plus Joe Biden to break the tie). But wait! Claiming she didn't have the votes, Pelosi killed off the public option anyway. Something doesn't add up.
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Wed Mar 10, 2010 at 18:15:16 PM EST
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Update: What McDonnell proclaimed was an executive "directive," not an executive order.
Shortly after his swearing in, Governor Bob McDonnell broke recent tradition by refusing to advance an executive order forbidding discrimination regardless of sexual orientation. Many of us here, including the editorial staff of BC, stand in opposition to discrimination based upon sexual orientation.
But today, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Bob McDonnell shifted his non-policy concerning non-discrimination. He reversed himself by issuing such an order.
"Discrimination based on factors such as one's sexual orientation or parental status violates the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. Therefore, discrimination against enumerated classes of persons set forth in the Virginia Human Rights Act or discrimination against any class of persons without a rational basis is prohibited," McDonnell said in his directive.
"Employment discrimination of any kind will not be tolerated by this administration," the directive said. "Consistent with state and federal law, and the Virginia and United States Constitutions, I hereby direct that the hiring, promotion, compensation, treatment, discipline, and termination of state employees shall be based on an individual's job qualifications, merit and performance.
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Wed Mar 03, 2010 at 10:54:19 AM EST
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I'll let the video speak for itself and leave it to you to characterize it.
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Tue Mar 02, 2010 at 16:09:55 PM EST
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If you thought Jim Bunning's callousness "only" affected 200,000 federal employees, who now will lose jobs and insurance, guess again. Bunning had much more in store for his second act of the same play.
Having gone along with Bush's wars costing trillions, and the entirety of George W. Bush's economically profligate economic policies, Jim Bunning also this week went gunning for America's seniors and he did it, he says, to save $10 billion. Somehow I am not buying that explanation. Jim Bunning may be an older American himself (he's 78), but he doesn't need Medicare. He's got Congress's health care plan. But he set out to hurt other seniors' access to Medicare. As it turns out, that is much easier to do in one fell swoop than most people would imagine.
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Tue Mar 02, 2010 at 14:43:57 PM EST
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On the floor of the US Senate (R-KY) Jim Bunning claimed anyone (senator) can object (implicitly, to anything). And he complained of missing a basketball game, while his obstructionism has cost over 200,000 their jobs and their health care. And he gave the middle finger literally to CNN's Jonathan Karl and figuratively to Americans. "Anybody can object," he said. Well, I do. I object that he has performed this act of violence against American families. He's done it repeatedly since last Thursday. And he's proud of himself.
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Sun Feb 28, 2010 at 16:53:43 PM EST
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(Subtitle: With Distant Devastation Much Larger)
Blacksburg's High School's collapsed gym roof and its subsequent disruption is but a small sampling of the chaos the citizens of NOLA, Haiti, and Chile have lived. And if this is any indication of the power of just one building's collapse, then it is hard to comprehend what is in store for Haiti and Chile (and is still in store for NOLA). Here is what the microcosm looks like.
It happened on a Saturday earlier this month, shortly after the girls basketball team had practiced. That there were no injuries or deaths owes in great measure to the action by those present as cracks appeared suddenly in the gym wall. The coach sent the girls outside the building.
The news reports told the story of the gym roof collapse. They told how no one was injured, much less killed. And they told how, after a week off, Blacksburg high school students were back at school--sharing another school in the afternoon and evening. You see, the school will probably be inhabitable on into the future. No one knows yet if the adjacent main school building, which shared support beams, and used the very same structural steel, will ever be structurally sound enough to house students and teachers again. This is a town with one high school, one middle school and three elementary schools. The options are not great. But it must be said that at least school children do not have to go to school in the open air.
And so, Middle Schoolers now head to school at the crack of dawn, at this time of year even before. They still struggle getting up so early. They leave school earlier now too. Their after-school care is disrupted, in some cases lost. Their activities and schedules are significantly changed. All this is because high school students now share their school. Imagine the change for a sixth grader! Children just getting used to middle school suddenly are "invaded" by high schoolers. Middle schoolers, all 900 of them, prepare to leave just as 1200 high schoolers arrive to take over what was once their school.
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Sat Feb 27, 2010 at 17:51:17 PM EST
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In his column called The Bankruptcy Boys, economist and Nobel Laureate, Paul Krugman, warns of the perverse logic of the Starve-the-Beast folks. The ironically-named Club-for-Growth-ers lust for the day the "Beast" (whom they assume is government) is starved. And they continue trying to amass contempt for "gubment," until, they hope, they can destroy programs people need.
The real truth is that government provides services people both need and want. "Keep your hands off my Medicare" even rings forth from the ignorant among Tea Partying wing nuts, who don't even know Medicare IS a government program, paid for by payroll taxes. The specific Medicare payroll tax was demarcated in hopes (by the wrong-wing fiscal extremists) that it would sour people of Medicare. It hasn't. Still, they will not stop. Peter Peterson's Starve-the-Beast refrain is an old song he's been singing for twenty years or more. Others carried the banner before him. They have been at it for forty years now. They do the bidding of corporations and the rich. Along the way, they hope to con enough of those who dream of being rich, but never will be because these dreamers are pawns in a dangerous chess game.
Ironically "Starve the Beast" tends to result in increased federal spending, according to the conservative Cato Institute here.
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Thu Feb 25, 2010 at 10:04:35 AM EST
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As I post this at shortly after 10 AM, the Summit will begin shortly.
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Wed Feb 24, 2010 at 20:39:43 PM EST
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I cried as the hero teacher spoke to the media about how he tackled the shooter. I cried as a young boy, no older than your son or grandson (or mine) described the scene. I cried as the students ran from the scene hands above their heads. How is it that kids this young must learn the drill. Run, keep hands up and behind the head, so neither shooter nor police mistake their intent. (They could probably run faster if not for this awkward position. But they know the drill.) They know the drill because Deer Creek Middle School is located Littleton CO, where the shooting took place yesterday, is only three miles from Columbine High.
The good news is that the students survived. The bad news is that the shooter tried to make it otherwise.
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Wed Feb 24, 2010 at 16:59:27 PM EST
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Rachel opines on the 290 bills passed in the House, which languish in the body of obstruction (aka "Kill Bill," or the Tarantino).
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Wed Feb 24, 2010 at 09:12:45 AM EST
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It's official: The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Carpetbagger Virginia Del. Morgan Griffith, Republican House Majority Leader of the fractious and fractiously-led Virginia House of Delegates, wants a new gig--Rick Boucher's. And he doesn't mind running in a Congressional district not his own. Unfortunately the Constitution doesn't prohibit such shenanigans. Incidentally, the man wants it both ways. He supports massive partisan gerrymandering, but doesn't respect the boundaries when his ambition and power-grab are at stake. And so, the residents of the 9th, will have to endure visits from the most divisive extremist ever to lead the Republican Party in the House of Delegates.
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Tue Feb 23, 2010 at 11:48:08 AM EST
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(Note: This post has been updated and slightly edited.)
With the list of those Senators urging a fight FOR the public option growing (now 23), Senators Warner and Webb should take note of both a new TPM article and a new poll. It turns out that Virginia voters want them to fight harder for a Medicare-like public option. Scroll down in the second link to find the really interesting responses.
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Mon Feb 22, 2010 at 20:17:41 PM EST
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Huffington Post reports that Senators Scott Brown (MA); Olympia Snowe, (ME); Susan Collins (ME); George Voinovich (OH); and Kit Bond (MO) joined with Democrats to break the Republican filibuster on the jobs bill. Read about it here.
Harry Reid said:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) thanked the newly-elected Republican from Massachusetts. "I hope this is the beginning of a new day here in the Senate. Whether this new day was created by the new Senator from Massachusetts or some other reason, I'm very, very happy that we were able to get this done. But there are some winners. Not any individual Senator, not Democrats or Republicans. The winners are small business people throughout this country."
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