POTUS will not be rushed - Amen to that

The news that Obama has refused to sign off on any of the four major options presented to him in Afghanistan reminds me of why he was elected president.

Read more here.

Today is Columbus Day...

What does that mean to you?

He won. Get over it. Get on with it.

Dear Friends,


The Nobel committee took their list of 205 nominees (the highest ever) and eventually decided our President should should be the recipient of their prize. They had their own qualifications, which may not have been the ones we may have chosen. But that's irrelevant. We have to stop projecting our standards onto other people's decisions.

Regardless, why do we think it's shameful that such recognition would go to what the world perceives as nascent efforts? In fact, many prestigious grants and awards are given based on important work that is far from being done, in the hopeful promise of more to come. We call it funding cancer and stem cell research, grants to start new businesses, Fulbrights to conduct international research, and the like.

Every Nobel selection is different and many selections are controversial at the time. Peace is a process. I'm glad President Obama is engaged in the process and I hope this award helps him to maintain an international stature as a man serious about peace. Further, I hope this prize strengthens his will to continue the difficult, often discounted efforts at transformation through diplomacy.

President Obama said all throughout the campaign that WE are the ones we've been waiting for. With all this grumbling. it seems we're still waiting for ourselves. I think a more productive conversation than "Did the Nobel Prize Committee choose the person I would have chosen?" is "As an American citizen how do I advocate for a peaceful society? How can I support the President's vision for peace worldwide?"

Rather than grumbling, let's be inspired, and let's get to work!

Love,
Nicole

Pole Dancers are Badass. Totally.

this is the highlight reel from this year's pole dancing competition. let me just say, this is not what most may conceive of pole dancing. this is athletic prowess on major display.

Why is this controversial?

The NYT published an article on Michelle Obama's ancestry. Included in her family line are slaves and slave owners. Some folks in the Twitterverse are offended that "white America" finds this newsworthy. I do not agree with them.

I don't think every article about race has to be viewed with cynicism. As a Black woman unaware of her roots beyond her grandparents, I find family trees fascinating, interesting and enlightening. The article was well done. Read it here.

Sarcasm fonts and other funnies

The funniest email arrived in my inbox yesterday...

Random thoughts from people 30-40 years old.. 

-I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

-I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

-Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

-That's enough, Nickelback.

-I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

-Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?

-Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

-There is a great need for sarcasm font.

-Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.

-I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

-How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

-I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

-The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.

- A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

- LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

- How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

- Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

-What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

- Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

-Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

- I would like to officially coin the phrase 'catching the swine flu' to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: "Dave caught the swine flu last night."

- Bad decisions make good stories

-Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

-If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

-Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

-You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

-Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

-There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

-I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this.

-I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

-I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

-When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

-I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

-Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

-Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

-It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

-I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

-Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

-Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

-It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

-I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

-I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

You Might Be a Traitor...

You might be a traitor if you're planning to commit a treasonous act...

Smile break

Leave Health Care ALONE!

Hilarious parody capturing many of the status quo arguments against health care reform generally:

Public Option - Down But Not Out

Today Senators Rockefeller and Schumer proposed amendments to the now famous Baucus bill. Specifically, these amendments added a public option. I'm still not clear on the differences in the two versions, but it was clear the Senate Finance Committee preferred  Senator Schumer's version.

Still, they both failed. Rockefeller's failed 8-15. Schumer's was much closer and more disappointing at 10-13. Baucus, citing his fear of the bill failing to pass the Senate with these amendments, voted no on both.

But it ain't over yet. Other committees can include the public option in their bill. Or once the house votes and the Senate votes, it can still be included in the final merged bill.

I think this is just stirring the pot. Progressives are ready to fight.

Should Inmates Vote?

Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP just tweeted the following (@BenJealous):

Every American who wants to vote, should be able to. Even inmates should be allowed to take this path. It is the essence of civil society.

But I'm not sure I agree. I believe all free citizens should be able to vote. This means ex-convicts, who have served time and have "repaid their debt to society" (whatever that means), should have voting rights restored. Some states do this already, but not all.

But when you're in prison, you don't have same rights as free people. That's the point of imprisonment! Yes, you should be treated humanely, but no, I don't think you should be electing officials to govern society. I'm not firm on this. This is my knee-jerk opinion.

What do you think?

Update: Since I composed this post, I had a very challenging conversation. Challenging meaning challenging the original thinking and pushing me to consider other ideas.  I'm looking for the best way to compile Tweets to accurately portray what was discussed and the evolution of my thinking. More later.

Glenn Beck & White Culture

Glenn Beck vs. Katie Couric. No contest really. Asked to explain what he meant by "white culture," Glenn was rendered speechless. Watch below:

Still More from the Ultra Right

How's this for headline?

Right-Wing Conference Tells Activists to Get Their Guns Ready for ‘Bloody Battle” with Obama the Nazi.

Yeah, you read it right. There’s more.

Facebook Polls, Twitter, and POTUS

Last night, an interesting tweet came across my feed. It was retweeted by other folks I follow and began making the rounds. What made this tweet so interesting? It referenced Facebook poll about President Obama. Actually the poll asked "Should Obama Be Killed?"

There are no words. The tweep who originally posted the story then contacted the Secret Service who took this matter very seriously and launched an investigation right away. More here.

Your Taxes Pay Rapists

ACORN gets all the headlines and all the punishment, while Halliburton/KBR is still overseas committing crimes and fraud. With our money. The latest? A gang-rape of an employee. Really.

How much does healthcare cost anyway?

Washington Post's Ezra Klein tells us if we knew how much healthcare runs, we'd stop tiptoeing our way to reform and run headlong, screaming.

Healthcare CEOs Living High on the Hog

Think Wall Street’s titans are the highest paid C.E.O.’s in the land? Think again. With median annual compensation of more than $12 million, medical moguls take the pay prize, even as the quality of care we receive falls to embarrassing lows. As the debate over health-care reform intensifies, the author catalogues the industry’s unbridled profiteering. 

Read the rest here.

Neocons vs. Obama (again)

Andrew Sullivan shares his and others' opinions on our President's master diplomacy of late. 


Another great post here.

G8 vs. G20

The world's 8 richest nations, referred to collectively as the G8, were were primarily responsible for worldwide economic policy. But in a recent move, the G20, representing 85% of the world's economy, will take part in the decision-making.  Read more here.

Comedy Break - #RHOA

In addition to the serious info I've been sharing lately, I wanna spread a little laughter on the Interwebs too. For those who love/hate/boycott the Real Housewives of Atlanta, here's a little something to make you chuckle.

Franken's Constitutional Test

Al Franken hasn't been a Senator very long, but he's already making (good) news.

The Making of Glenn Beck part 3

The conclusion of this 3 part series is no less satisfying than the first two. An excerpt:

His talk radio identity still larval, Beck was already displaying the skills that would make him a talk-radio lightning rod. "He always knew how to work people and situations for attention," says Penn. "He could pick the most pointless story in the news that day and find a way to approach it to get phones lit up. That was his strong point -- pissing people off. He was very shrewd on both the business and entertainment sides of radio. He's built his empire on very calculated button pushing."

Read the rest of part 3 here.

The Making of Glenn Beck part 2

From Zaitchik's piece:

Beck's real broadcasting innovation during his stay in Kentucky came in the realm of vicious personal assaults on fellow radio hosts. A frequent target of Beck's in Louisville was Liz Curtis, obese host of an afternoon advice show on WHAS, a local AM news-talk station. It was no secret in Louisville that Curtis, whom Beck had never met and with whom he did not compete for ratings, was overweight. And Beck never let anyone forget it. For two years, he used "the big blonde" as fodder for drive-time fat jokes, often employing Godzilla sound effects to simulate Curtis walking across the city or crushing a rocking chair. Days before Curtis' marriage, Beck penned a skit featuring a stolen menu card for the wedding reception. "The caterer says that instead of throwing rice after the ceremony, they are going to throw hot, buttered popcorn," explains Beck's fictional spy.

Despite the constant goading, Curtis never responded. But being ignored only seemed to fuel Beck's hunger for a response. As his attacks escalated and grew more unhinged, a WHAS colleague of Curtis' named Terry Meiners decided to intervene. He appeared one morning unannounced at Beck's small office, which was filled with plaques, letters and news clippings -- "a shrine to all that is Glenn Beck," remembers Meiners. He told Beck to lay off Curtis, suggesting he instead attack a morning DJ like himself, who could return fire. "Beck told me, 'Sorry, all's fair in love and war,'" remembers Meiners. "He continued with the fat jokes, which were exceedingly cruel, pointless, and aimed at one of the nicest people in radio. Glenn Beck was over-the-top childish from Day One, a punk who tried to make a name for himself by being disruptive and vengeful."

Read the whole article here.

The Making of Glenn Beck part 1

Salon.com is doing a 3 part series on Glenn Beck. I read the first one and I'm going to link it here. It's pretty interesting so far, and I plan to link all 3 when they're published. 

For Colored Girls...

Have you heard the news? The one and only Tyler Perry was tapped to helm the film adaptation of For Colored Girls.  I am not a fan of Tyler's body of work. And in truth, I can't comment on his directing skills because I find his writing suffering from an abysmal lack of nuance. 

Really. 

One writer lovingly expressed her concern regarding his portrayal of black people in stereotypical ways. As much as she'd like to support one of her own, she can't bring herself to do it: 

While I am tempted to watch your shows because they are pretty much the only Black ones on television, I don't want to send the message to networks and advertisers that I as a Black consumer find those images to be acceptable. Read more here.

But the news that he will be directing this very serious, complicated work, distresses me. I am not alone.

Perry has a special talent for creating the illusion that otherwise credible black actors don’t have enough talent for mystery dinner theater, so I have to consider anything he controls creatively a lost cause. Read the rest here.

On Counting Chickens Prematurely

Will we have a public option or won't we? Nate Silver weighs in.

Bill: Barack has to win on the merits

President Jimmy Carter sounded off on the escalating race rhetoric from the right wing. Leaning on his experience as a born and raised southerner, he expressed concern that much of the current vitriol against President Obama's policies is because of racial prejudice.

Not all agree with him (at least not publicly). President Clinton weighed in acknowledging, maybe race plays a small factor, but that it wasn't the central issue:

And I believe if he were white, every single person who opposes him now would be opposing him then. We have to win this health care fight on the merits.

Read more here.

Universal Healthcare is Not Socialism

Proud to link to my friend's blog. She's a great writer and just an overall brilliant woman. Here's an excerpt:

Universal Healthcare is no more socialism than offering healthcare to active and retired military personnel. I've been the beneficiary of government healthcare most of my life, first as a military dependent then as a college student, then as a private citizen who prefers to utilize clinics. In fact, and this is a total aside, my life was never put at risk until I hauled off and used private physician care. Those guys nearly killed me!

Keep reading here.

All Porn is Homosexual Porn

File this under "More Craziness from the Ultra Right."

On second thought, it's not nice to call people's ideas crazy, so maybe you should create your own file for this one. The Values Voters summit was held earlier this month and several interesting stories have come out. This one: a leaked video shows Senator Coburn's chief of staff explaining that pornography turns your sexual drive inward, therefore all pornography is homosexual pornography.

Right.

Think Progress has the story, the video, and a transcript here.

On Taking Offense to Others Being Offended

A link to a great post came across my Twitter Feed this morning. In it, the writer discusses the complications of "others" being offended on behalf of those being "misrepresented."

An excerpt:

If I am honest, I want white people to "get it," but I don't want them thinking they "get it" better than me--a black woman who actually lives with race bias.

She ends the piece:

I guess what we all want is that allies will be sensitive and intolerant of race bias, but that they will keep their privilege in check and remember that the voices of the marginalized should be the loudest ones. The victims of an "ism" must take the lead.

Am I right? Or, can I be offended on someone else's behalf?

Nicely done and a true discussion piece. Read the whole post here.

Values Voters vs. Jeremiah Wright

After watching Rachel's show Friday night, I felt moved to write about the extreme hypocrisy of the conservative movement. Specifically, the fact that they would open a conservative conference with a song Why Should God Bless America that was amazingly similar in message to Jeremiah Wright's overexposed yet under-contextualized sermon, Confusing God and Government, aka God Damn America.

POTUS is NOT a socialist

Regardless of how you feel about socialism, labeling everything socialist isn't appropriate (or smart, or credible or...).

For far too long, the media have just been reporting what politicians say without verifying the veracity of their statements. Finally, Obama strikes back with a strong critique of media coverage and the media steps up in return.

Read about today's smack-back of Minority Leader John Boehner.

Better yet, watch it for yourself:

Well Deserved SMACK DOWN!

I was recently a tad heated with a friend of mine who engaged me in a discussion about something on Fox news.

In case you don't know, I don't believe in Fox news.

At all.

Pelosi Power

I'll have more to say on this later, but for now, check this segment from Rachel's show.

It's centered around Speaker Pelosi's admonition to everyone to be more responsible with the tone of political criticism. It was refreshing and amazing to see her take such an unequivocal stance. It was even more amazing (but decidedly not refreshing) to see her counterparts respond:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Beautifully Imperfect

Missing from much of the discourse today is humanity. Hearing real stories of real people would remind us all that none of us is the uncomplicated, oversimplified persona we are often portrayed as being. This video reminds me of that.

FLOTUS on #HC09 (Updated)

Michelle Obama has always been called Barack's secret weapon. Today, again, she shows us why.

She spoke to leaders of women's groups this morning to give a "soft pitch" on health care.

Soft it wasn't.

It was moving and beautiful and honest, strong and very clear. Because of those things, it sliced through the noisy rhetoric and undoubtedly hit home for many people. I hope it gets a lot of circulation, because she makes the arguments in a way that just can't be shouted down, or even protested with any credibility.

I missed the ladies she referenced at the beginning - the ones who told their stories. But if I find a link with them, I'll update this post.

Updated. Here's a link to the whole event. It's 49 minutes.

If you just want to watch Michelle's remarks, you can do so below. Enjoy!

---

Part 1:

Part 2:

ACORN update 2 - ACORN strikes back

ACORN strikes back.

Good for them! While I'm no fan of corruption, I really don't like the constant negative press ACORN gets. Sure there are some bad apples in the bunch. But when is that *not* the case? At any rate, they've released materials to show that not every field office has unqualified employees. The news has been slanted only in the anti-ACORN direction, but I'm glad to see they are making their voice heard and defending themselves.

Washington, DC - ACORN Housing today released a video of one of its staff giving her side of what happened when 'filmmaker' James O'Keefe visited the Philadelphia office. Ms. Katherine Conway Russell was approached by O'Keefe and when she realized he was not asking about a valid housing issue, she asked him to leave and called the police. "Last July James O'Keefe who has been in the news lately with videos from other ACORN offices came into our office," said Russell, "Unlike the videos he has been showing on the internet, we refused to help him and called the police and filed a report."

Read more at here.

ACORN update

see? my friend needn't have worried. the ACORN scandal has gotten plenty of coverage, and already, both the Senate and the House have voted to cut funding for the group.

Insurance Companies Discriminate Against Women

There's been some nice reporting on the health insurance industry's discrimination against women. Most recently, we found out that women who are victims of spousal abuse are deemed to have a pre-existing condition (WTF?). This "condition" subsequently makes them more expensive to insure.

Now we find out that women who have had C-sections are also considered to have pre-existing conditions.

On a related note, it's important to know that many insurance plans consider maternity care optional, and some that do cover it have a mandatory waiting period before maternity benefits kick-in. Lesson: check before you get preggers!

You'll be relieved to know that maternity care is part of the essential benefits package (EBP) mandated in the house version of the healthcare reform bill. The EBP is a set of minimum benefits all insurance plans must offer. Also in the house version - an end to discriminatory insurance practices. It doesn't matter what "conditions" you've had or still have, if you want coverage, you get it.

Read more about insurance discrimination against women here.

Van Jones Speaks

Van Jones, formerly known as the Green Jobs Czar of the Obama Administration, has spoken out. In an email he wrote in part:

My family and I want to thank everyone for the outpouring of love and support that we have received over the past week or so. I resigned from the White House on Sept. 6, and I have remained silent since then--in keeping with my promise not to be a distraction during a key moment in the Obama Presidency.

He goes on to say there are several things people can do, but chief among them was to continue to support the President.

For those requiring a little background, Van Jones helped found ColorOfChange.Org, an organization currently best known for lobbying against FOX's Glenn Beck. Weeks ago, Glenn Beck accused President Obama of being racist. In response to that allegation, ColorOfChange.Org began to target advertisers who bought airtime on Beck's show, making them aware of his claims. As a result, several companies pulled their commercials from Beck's show.

• Watch Stephen Colbert on the exodus here.
• Read about it from the A.P. here.

Shortly after said exodus, Glenn began attacking Van Jones on air, sometimes resorting to lies about his background to make him into a scary black man (shock and gasp).

Regardless of how you feel about him, it's worth noting that Jones hasn't been associated with ColorOfChange in two years. It's reasonable to believe he had no role in the organization's decision to go after Beck. Likewise, there's no way to prove that Beck went after Jones as payback, but if it walks like a duck...

At any rate, tit for tat is pretty disgusting, and I don't think Jones should've lost his job. {And I will lose all credibility for stating that no one wants to see a smart, fine brother out of a job. But well...there's that duck thing again}.

Fans of Jones think Green Czar was a nice job, but not the best one for him, a well-known green activist. They believe he is better positioned outside the White House. I'm not sure Jones agrees, but read Arianna Huffington's post about it here.

No matter where you stand, Van still supports POTUS, and asks us to do the same.

Read more here.

POTUS tunes #HCR message for students

Today POTUS delivered speech on health care reform. He's spoken to Congress and now he's in campaign mode, taking the show on the road. This time his audience was a full house of excited college students. It streamed live on Facebook during lunch time.

Here's a link from C-Span.

McCain is Mad, But Who Cares?

Tweet from White House correspondent Mark Knoller:

Sen. John McCain disappointed by Obama missile decision. McCain says it could undermine perceived American leadership in Eastern Europe.

Am I the only one who really doesn't care what the 2nd place candidate in the recent presidential election thinks? I voted for Obama and one of my top reasons was I perceived him a diplomat. I perceived McCain a hot head with a penchant for gimmicks and rash decision-making. Anyway, George Stephanopoulos shares McCain's whole statement here.

While I'm holding out to see how POTUS will really handle the "wars" in Afghanistan and Iraq, I'm glad we're making more moves that will strengthen our diplomatic relations around the world.

Not sure what this is all about? Read about it here. Note, POTUS is not getting rid of the missile defense system (which I'd like), he is merely scrapping it in its present form. But still, some take this is a good step in the diplomatic direction.

POTUS Polling

I'm not one of those poll hawks - every single day wondering if Obama is up or down on various issues. I think you should consider these things over time rather than all the time. That said, I'll share the latest Gallup poll sans analysis. I'll let you decide what you think for yourself.

PRINCETON, NJ -- Of the seven specific issue approval ratings measured in a Sept. 11-13 USA Today/Gallup poll, President Obama gets his highest rating (56%) on his handling of Iraq, and his lowest (38%) on the federal deficit. Obama's approval ratings on handling the economy and healthcare, at 46% and 43%, respectively, are little changed over the past two months.

More here.

Wise Latina Provokes

I'd heard some rumblings about a court case regarding corporations as humans, but didn't really know what was up. In brief, it seems past rulings gave corporations the same rights and protections as people even though (as some argued), they don't get treated the same way for mistakes they make. Stephen Colbert tackled this earlier this week.

Last week, new Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor challenged this assertion. Indeed, she argued:

...the court should reconsider the 19th century rulings that first afforded corporations the same rights flesh-and-blood people have.

Read: Sotomayor Issues Challenge to a Century of Corporate Law

Rachel Recap - Frank Schaeffer

Tonight Rachel (The Rachel Maddow Show) talked about a poll that found 35% of New Jersey conservatives think President Obama is the anti-christ. More info on that poll here.

Frank Schaeffer, son of a hugely popular fundamentalist Christian, came on to discuss what he called the Evangelical subculture that is rotting the brains of many Americans (wow!). He gave an interview a few months ago on NPR's Fresh Air. It's about 44 minutes and you can find the audio here.

He also wrote an article on the Huffington Post dated 9/12 - the day of the now infamous 9/12 march sponsored by Glenn Beck. Check it out here.

ACORN, Health Care, and Orly Taitz

i started off the morning with an extremely interesting debate with a friend. he was wondering about, or more to the point, accusing the mainstream media (MSM) of refusing to cover the latest ACORN scandal. my response? there was more important news yesterday. his response? the liberal media had an agenda to keep ACORN quiet.

while i agree that liberal, conservative, and so-called neutral media outlets all have an agenda (they are almost all financed by corporate america), i do not agree there was a conspiratorial agenda to keep ACORN out of the news. i assured him it would receive more coverage, probably today, and sent him to several links (CBS, NPR, and the White House daily briefing) to show the evolving coverage just since yesterday.

here's the NYT coverage of the ACORN scandal, and here's jon stewart last night.

as the day went on, my twitterfeed didn't didn't reveal an abundance of news to share, but here are a few stories that may be of interest:

• a doctor shares an argument on why the single payer option should be considered for healthcare reform. Read it here.

for those who don't understand single payer, this is quite simply, Medicare for All. it eliminates private insurers for health care and has the government paying all bills. on this plan, you could choose any doctor you wanted, because all doctors would be "in network." after all, there would be only one network - Medicare. no insurance company could ever drop you and you would never max out on benefits.

there are lots of reasons this is a good plan, but it is not really under discussion. it doesn't appear in any of the bills under review in the house or senate. all arguments about a government take over of healthcare are false, since no one is proposing any legislation with single payer in it. still, lots of doctors and some congress people are fighting for it anyway and this post is a good example of that voice. by the way, Anthony Weiner, congressman from NY, is a big advocate for single payer. see my post with several videos of him here.

for more on healthcare reform basics, see my 101 list. i do need to update it, but that'll get you started if you're a complete newbie.

• max baucus finally releases his version of the Gang of Six health care bill (this is a committee of 6 senators (3 Dems/3 Repubs) who worked on the bill). supposedly it tracks with the POTUS principles for reform, but apparently no one, Dem or Reb actually likes the bill. no one, that is, but max. analysis here. short video on why his bill is a bad one here. this video features Wendell Potter, former executive of insurance giant Cigna, and whistleblower extraordinaire!

• just for fun, a song/video about the U.S. being ranked #37 in the world in health care.

• lastly, queen of the birthers, orly taitz (skewered on the daily show), gets slammed by a judge who dismisses her latest complaint as frivolous. for those unclear about birthers, they are people who believe Barack Obama is not the rightful POTUS b/c he was supposedly not born in the U.S. many things that make claim ludicrous, but i won't discuss them now. the taitz article, on Talking Points Memo, is here.

ttfn!

Tuesday Recap 9/15

by request of my line sisters, here's a recap of favorite links/posts from today.

firstly, always a treat - newark mayor cory booker was on colbert report last night. {VIDEO here}

Uninsured Like Me is an article from Salon.com. Interesting quote:

From the beginning, attempts to create a universal welfare state in the U.S. have been thwarted by the fears of voters that they will be taxed to subsidize other Americans who are unlike them in race or ethnicity or culture. Read more...

we've talked quite a bit caster semenya, an athlete who has undergone lots of scrutiny for possibly being intersex. someone from twitter shared this piece about it. money quote: "only she can decide her gender – nobody else can." personal clarification - it's true, gender is socially constructed. sex, on the other hand, is biological.

the house passed a resolution to disapprove of joe wilson's behavior during POTUS speech. read more about it here.

jimmy carter discussed the racist tone around Obama's presidency and how it was an abominable circumstance. check out what he said here.

if you wanted to hear POTUS off the record, here it is. i saw this all day on the twitterfeed but never listened or shared it until now.

Keith Olbermann was really funny tonight. Rachel, good as always. To watch, you can download today's podcasts from itunes or visit the www.msnbc.com. click on the individual shows and you can choose clips by date.

thanks for reading!

Kanye & Patrick - Nightly Recap

i don't agree with lumping serena's outburst with kanye's and joe's. to be clear, i don't CONDONE her behavior, but it's not unreasonable or unusual for athletes to shout and scream and curse about a call. relevant example: McEnroe, John. there are also plenty of baseball examples of folks getting thrown out of games, etc.

again, i'm not saying this behavior is correct, (certainly not the threats) but it is not out of the ordinary. shouting out during a joint address to congress is not on the continuum of reasonable behavior, nor is snatching the mic from someone accepting an award. hilarious mashup of kanye interrupting POTUS here.

RIP patrick swayze who died today from pancreatic cancer.

a report was released today that doctors prefer the public option.

obama gave a great policy speech on the financial markets today. he said he didn't run for president to bail out banks. and that regulation is necessary to ensure all the players play fair in the future. curbing reckless behavior will ensure the markets work the way they should without endangering the whole economy due to greed. (speech is about 30 min).

cory booker is on the colbert report tonight and both stephen and jon stewart return tonight from vacay (yes!).

DON'T MISS an open letter to an anonymous woman: The African Lion and the Lyin' African.

Stunning post

A beautifully written post about the current political climate, especially through the lens of 9/11.

Once upon a time, there was a President named Bill Clinton, who was, by most historical standards, a typical Centrist Republican, although by a fluke of geography and circumstances he ran for public office with a "(D)" after his name.

More here.

Don't Be Scared of the Public Option

There are two extremely easy to understand videos on the public option. They're easy to understand because the public option is not the complicated, "scary" "government takeover" of healthcare some would have you to believe. Even the name, public option, gives it away - it's simply a new choice among the others already available.

Here's Robert Reich explaining it in less than 3 minutes:

Here's the other one, by Chris Hayes of the Nation magazine:

Senate Bills and Frameworks, Oh My!

So previously I linked to the current version of the Senate health care bill. Unlike the House bill, this bill is not the version that has been merged after input from various committees. It represents the work of one committee - HELP (Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions).

This week Max Baucus (D-MT), representing what some call the Gang of Six in the Senate, has released an 18-page framework for reform. I've not yet read it (nor will I likely have time soon), but here it is for those interested in taking a peak.

I will link analyses from those who read it as they become available.

26 Lies About HR 3200

There's lots of misinformation swirling around out there. Some are egregious distortions of the facts, while others are possibly honest mistakes. Factcheck.org clears up some of the most common.

A notorious analysis of the House health care bill contains 48 claims. Twenty-six of them are false and the rest mostly misleading. Only four are true.

Read more here.

Weiner minces no words on #HCR

Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) speaks his mind and is no punk when it comes to healthcare reform. Here are a few videos (courtesy of MSNBC).

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