TurboTax has joined a growing group of companies who as of today number at one hundred and twenty. These are the companies who had been sponsors of the Glenn Beck Show who have pulled their support. Turbotax ran ads on the Glenn Beck Show for two days before issuing this statement:
Thanks everyone for your feedback, & for reminding us of what we value. We've pulled advertising from the Glenn Beck show.
As the swallows to Capistrano issue in a new spring every year, so too do the increasing glints of sanity we see around us harken to a warming period ahead where the vicious Tea-stained winds of the waning season fade into memory.
Tea Partying Far-Right-Loonistan (AKA: GOP v.2010) has been having identity crises left and, er, right recently. On the one hand we have Florida Republican congressman Stephen Precourt loyally pushing to remove tax breaks from film shoots featuring gay characters: apparently part of the "No Job Left Behind" effort Florida's Republican lawmakers have been pursuing, which so-far has successfully pushed the Sunshine State from third to below-tenth in movie-making. In the other hand California Republican state congressman Roy "God-Fearing Paragon of Heterosexual Manliness" Ashburn - who never met a piece of anti-gay legislation he couldn't fiercely defend - tearfully announced his insatiable desire for other God-Fearing Paragons of Heterosexual Manliness, like the passenger in his official state vehicle whom he picked up in a gay bar before getting busted for driving drunk.
Since the arguably tepid advocacy for health care reform in Obama's State of the Union address the President's resolve to stake his political fortunes, and by implication those of his majority legislators, on the passage of a health care reform bill has become clearly evident. And even in that speech his message to his Congressional party was unequivocal, "To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills."
After the tortuous ebb and flow of national debate and painful legislative horse-trading of the past nine months we have reached a point of no return for Obama's administration, our Congressional majorities and our political prospects in the upcoming 2010 midterm elections. Either the bill passes or fails. Obama gets it:
GLENSIDE, Pa. - President Obama challenged wavering members of his own party on Monday not to give in to their political fears about supporting health care legislation, asserting that the urgency of getting a bill through Congress should trump any concern about the consequences for Democrats in November.
President Barack Obama told a crowd of students at Arcadia University, in Glenside, Pa. on Monday that there should be an "up or down vote on health care."
In a high-octane appearance that harked back to his "Yes we Can" campaign days, Mr. Obama jettisoned the professorial demeanor that has cloaked many of his public pronouncements on the issue, instead making an emotional pitch for public support as he tries to push the legislation through a final series of votes in Congress in the next several weeks.
President Obama's willingness to make an all or nothing bet on this legislative reform has leveraged Congressional Democrats into a position where they soon must consider Benjamin Franklin's sage advice, "We must all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang seperately."
Across California and some other states on Thursday night, thousands of students marched in protest of increasing tuition fees. At 7pm Pacific Time this evening I found myself amidst one such protest as it moved through the streets of San Francisco. It was a spirited and enthusiastic event and both the police and protesters kept their cool. Interstate 880 was simultaneously closed to traffic by other groups of protesters. Large protests were reported across California in Los Angeles, Berkley and other cities and in a total of 30 other states.
The fight for health care reform in this country started more than 100 years ago. The current stage of the fight started more than a year ago. It has been raging ever since Barack Obama took office in January, 2009. We are now in the final days of the latest battle and the Right is bringing its full force to bear to try to prevent any changes to the status quo.
The Right has fought against any reforms that will benefit the American people at the expense of business interests. They have labeled the effort as an attempt to take over the entire health care industry. They have told people that it will turn the country into a socialist country, even though there is absolutely nothing to justify that claim since the public option was removed from the Senate bill. They have claimed provisions in the bill will lead to "death panels" that will kill off your grandparents or disabled children. They have lied and misled to the point that some people actually fear for their lives if this bill passes. They are not above using any tactic, telling any lie, and smearing any progressive in an attempt to protect health insurance companies and pharmaceutical industry profits.
The Right knows this is the final stages of the battle and are pulling out all the stops to prevent the American people from benefiting from Health Care Reform. They are flooding the internet with emails urging people to call Congress to pressure representatives. The list below comes from one of those emails. These are the people they are targeting in Congress. Please scan the list for your representative and call with a message of support if you find them in the list. Be sure to tell whoever you talk to that you are aware that opponents of reform are mounting a deliberate campaign and that you want them to know that you support reform. Also remind them that the calls against reform are coming from people that got their name from right-wing mailing lists and those people are not going to vote for them no matter what.
This is it, people. It's up to us now. We can win this battle, but only if we are willing to fight. Call today. Call now. Call often. Send emails. Send faxes if you have access to a fax machine. Fight for what is right.
See, I thought we wanted to increase the value of U.S. currency, not mangle it. Not so, says a goofy U.S. congressman from North Carolina, who wants the $50 bill redrawn to feature the face of former President Ronald Reagan.
Ever heard of the winter blues? Well, I've got them. The end of winter always seems to drag on at these northern latitudes. Everyone, except a winter sports buff, is tired of snow and cold by the end of February. I'm no longer fond of winter sports. The closest I come to participating in a winter sport these days is to sit in front of a warm fire and watch hockey on television. Unless you count the daily walks with my dog Al.
Al doesn't care about the seasons. Not when it comes to his favorite pastime, going for a walk. The fresh snow that had fallen overnight didn't bother him at all. It bothered me. A lot. Even after all these years of living in Michigan, I still have a hard time accepting the truism - Spring will come when it comes.
Winter blues or not, it was soon obvious that Al wasn't going to let me sit and mope until he got his daily walk. He was dancing in front of the door even before I had shrugged into my coat. As soon as I'd pulled on my boots and grabbed his leash, we were on our way.
Politico is announcing that it is a go for reconciliation on Health Care Reform. This will come as a blow to the Tea Party and to much of Left Blogistan, but sometimes you just have to succeed no matter who it offends.
Sen. Tom Harkin tells POLITICO that Senate Democratic leaders have decided to go the reconciliation route for health care reform. The House, he said, will first pass the Senate bill after Senate leaders demonstrate that they have the votes to pass reconciliation in the Senate.
Do you think it is ever time to chill out, or is hyperventilation the only acceptable route?
After their resounding defeat in the 2008 general election there was a fairly common consensus that the Republican Party would, of necessity, remake themselves. A new party would emerge disassociated from the opprobium of the Bush administration and its policies with a recalibrated ideological compass; with upgraded doctrine and technology for the upcoming political battles of the new millenium.
And this internal discussion commenced among Right intellectuals and pundits, including a fair bit of intramural finger-pointing over perceived failures of the Republican party apparatus in general and the McCain campaign in particular. This debate quickly focussed on the controversial nomination of Sarah Palin as candidate for the vice-presidency, an issue which sharply polarised the respective factions.
Little did they realise that this process would be derailed and abandoned in a scramble by incumbents and aspirants alike to align themselves with a minority, populist movement which has, already, damaged the prospects of the party beyond measure. The angry, heckling supporters evident in the later stages of the national campaign, the same ones whose shouted epithets the candidates themselves were sometimes obliged to publically disown, have somehow become the Promised Land constituency to which an increasingly broad spectrum of Republican candidates are pitching their policies and oratory.
The debate over the future of the Republican Party has hardly progressed beyond the desperate and defamatory sloganeering of the McCain campaign in its closing weeks. Apart from the ongoing divide over the perils of Palinism the ideological battle for the 'soul' of the Republican party is apparently over and it was aptly summarised recently by Jonathan Rauch of the National Journal:
The history of the modern Republican Party in one sentence: Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller got into an argument and George Wallace won.
Instead of resetting the Republican platform to core conservative values they have allowed themselves to be co-opted into settling for a national agenda which appeals to an increasingly incoherent, marginalised and aggrieved minority.
Money is imaginary to begin with. It consists of something (credit, paper, gold, a number in a computer, etc.) chosen by a society to represent measured units of value for people to exchange goods & services. It is not only a straight replacement for goods & services, but money itself is a commodity. The particulars of how money works makes for good reading.
Money is in one sense, the confidence we have in this society of ours; in our ability to work together, exist together, live together for the betterment of us as individuals and as a group.
Money is trust. Money is a membership in society. Money is a varying measurement on how we feel we are doing as a group. How this plan of working together is going. Money is a report card and an assertion that we all believe in ourselves as a society.
If the 8.8 stands this will put this shaker in the top ten in recorded history. Chile is experienced with earthquakes and much more capable of dealing with the aftermath (Chilean teams went to Haiti to help with search and rescue), but this is nonetheless an enormous event. The epicenter was 22 miles underground 200 miles from Concepcion, and has also caused damage in Santiago including the main terminal at the airport there.
Tsunami warnings have been issued for Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand and other Pacific nations.
The story is unfolding, I leave this diary to be updated by others. I will be travelling most of the day.
ince the arguably tepid advocacy for health care reform in Obama's State of the Union address the President's resolve to stake his political fortunes, and by implication those of his majority legislators, on the passage of a health care reform bill has become clearly evident. And even in that speech his message to his Congressional party was unequivocal, "To Democrats, I would remind you that we still have the largest majority in decades, and the people expect us to solve some problems, not run for the hills."
these northern latitudes. Everyone, except a winter sports buff, is tired of snow and cold by the end of February. I'm no longer fond of winter sports. The closest I come to participating in a winter sport these days is to sit in front of a warm fire and watch hockey on television. Unless you count the daily walks with my dog Al.
After their resounding defeat in the 2008 general election there was a fairly common consensus that the Republican Party would, of necessity, remake themselves. A new party would emerge disassociated from the opprobium of the Bush administration and its policies with a recalibrated ideological compass; with upgraded doctrine and technology for the upcoming political battles of the new millenium.
