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Monday, 08 February 2010 17:23 |
by cabaretic
Manyl know that I have mentioned many times in many prior posts that I have bipolar disorder. Some time ago I reached a conclusion within myself that the best way to counteract the still prominent stigma of mental illness and with it the misinformation based on fear and misunderstanding was to offer myself as a concrete example. I must admit, though, that I never thought I'd need to speak out against anyone or any column that at least concedes that treatment would be necessary, assuming, that is, that it worked. Most resistance I face and most assumptions I refute are mainly a product of people who, as they inevitably put it, don't wish to be a slave to a pill or who think that anyone who has to rely on medication to solve his or her problems must have some deficiency in inner strength, independence, or both.
Begley's article in Newsweek entitled "The Depressing News about Antidepressants" contains much truth, but its underlying assumption that antidepressants aren't worth the risks involved and might be more harm than good only provides more justification for people of such stripes. Fear and unwillingness to seek treatment are the biggest of stumbling blocks to health and the idea that someone whose quality of life is suffering mightily might not reach out and seek a highly available and usually quite effective means of obtaining an otherwise normal life distresses me greatly.
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Monday, 08 February 2010 16:24 |
by Consumer Lawyer
We often hear about the role that the pharmaceutical industry, for-profit health care companies, and big banks have in influencing and corrupting elections and elected officials. But there is another group to add to this list: Debt Collectors. This is a billion dollar industry, and its political agenda goes far beyond the day-to-day regulation of collecting debts. The debt collection industry opposes any number of financial reforms as well as access to health care. Why? Predatory lending and huge health care bills keep people in debt. The more people that are in debt, in turn, the more profitable the industry.
In essence, debt collectors are the bottom-feeders that get rich digging and feeding on the garbage produced by our current system.
This broad political agenda was the reason the debt collectors trade group, Association of Credit and Collection Professionals or ACA, mobilized on behalf of Scott Brown. For 48 hours before the election, ACA did not just raise a little money for Brown. ACA members from all over the country stopped collecting debt and, instead, made free calls to voters is Massachusetts on behalf of Brown. Query whether those in-kind donations will ever be reported to the Federal Elections Committee.
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Monday, 08 February 2010 15:48 |
by Progressive South
Landrieu was heavily favored in the 11-strong field of mayoral hopefuls. But the final votes were even more lopsided than expected: When the dust settled, Landrieu garnered 66% of the city vote, easily enough to bypass a run-off and assume leadership of the city.
Here are some numbers and history to give you a sense of just how big Landrieu's landslide victory was:
* Out of 366 precincts in Orleans Parish, Landrieu got 50% or more of the vote in all but 10 of them, or 97% of all precincts. Landrieu was the leader, winning the plurality of votes, in all precincts but one (09-45A, in far-east Lake Catherine).
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Monday, 08 February 2010 12:33 |
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by nyceve
A senior Congressional legislative aide called me this morning on background as follows.
We must begin to organize a massive and unprecedented telephone call in campaign for passage of healthcare reform, to begin at 9AM EST on February 24th and extend through the entire day of the presidential healthcare meeting on February 25th.
This senior Congressional aide (who asked at this time to remain anonymous), advised that nothing less than a citizen outpouring the likes of which members of Congress have never seen, will be sufficient to get healthcare legislation passed.
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Monday, 08 February 2010 10:48 |
by TomP
My title is derived from this scene in the Wizard of Oz:
In the scene, Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland) has reached the Emerald City with her companions, The Scarecrow (Ray Bolger), The Tin Woodsman (Jack Haley), and The Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), and are treated to the hospitality and technological comforts of the fantastic city. As they leave the "Wash & Brush Up Co.", The Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton) appears in the sky riding her broomstick, skywriting the words "SURRENDER DOROTHY" (an edit of the originally intended phrase, "SURRENDER DOROTHY OR DIE, WWW.")
Yes, President Obama once again is back to "bipartisanship." He is convening a half-day bipartisan health care session at the White House to be televised live this month. The Republican response: "sure, if you surrender everything and adopt Republican policies." In other words, Surrender Barack!
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Monday, 08 February 2010 10:36 |
By Gov. Howard Dean MD
In 2006, the Fifty-State Strategy helped put Congress in the hands of Democrats. In 2008, it put the White House in our hands too. We worked hard; we listened to the boots on the ground, and America voted for Democrats -- often in places once thought off limits to Democratic candidates. Americans honored us with the opportunity to demonstrate our ability to lead.
In 2010, we face the reality that the culture of incumbency and corruption in Washington will not be changed just because Barack Obama was elected President, or just because the Democrats have majorities in both Houses.
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Monday, 08 February 2010 10:32 |
by Jennifer Brunner
Wall Street just doesn't get it. Last week insurance giant AIG announced that it would be paying out $100 million in bonuses—after America’s taxpayers bailed it out to the tune of at least $180 billion! Americans are simmering and ready to brew over.
I'm Ohio Secretary of State and I'm running for the U.S. Senate. Here in Ohio, people are hurting like they haven’t hurt since the great depression of the 1930’s. Last week a gentleman in Cleveland asked me what I thought the difference between a recession and a depression was. I know he saw little difference, and frankly it was hard to draw the line for him in his situation.
Over the course of my campaign, I have listened to heart-wrenching stories about families facing financial ruin who have lost their health insurance and now cannot afford to pay medical bills for their children’s special health needs. And I have seen small business owners struggling—and in some cases having to shut their doors completely, because they cannot get credit to keep their businesses going (even when they have purchase orders in hand).
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Sunday, 07 February 2010 17:04 |
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Ten years on, our corporate brand-setters have successfully co-opted the lessons in Naomi Klein’s No Logo
By Andrew Potter
 Recently, the 10-year anniversary edition of Naomi Klein’s No Logo appeared in bookstores, complete with a new introduction by Klein herself. Released in early 2000, No Logo was an impeccably timed report on a growing youth movement that was rising up in response to the new-world-order agenda of liberalized trade, corporate outsourcing and political deregulation that became known as “globalization.”
Klein’s writing caught the wave of anti-globalization protests that swept across the planet a decade ago, beginning with the massive and violent protest against the WTO meeting in Seattle in November 1999. Almost immediately, wherever world leaders gathered—APEC conferences, G8 summits, trade negotiations—they would be met with street protests and a parallel meeting of the planet’s angry marginalia, including counterculturalists, environmentalists, socialists, labor organizations and human-rights activists. No Logo was quickly adopted as the movement’s bible and, along with Nalgene water bottles and khaki cargo pants, became an essential part of the general-issue battle kit for campus lefties of the time.
What are we to make of No Logo a decade on? It remains a stunningly passionate and ambitious snapshot of the newly globalized youth and consumer culture at the end of the 20th century. It is also an often infuriating work of agitprop that marries old Marxist prejudices about the market economy to a paranoid and conspiratorial account of the business of advertising.
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Sunday, 07 February 2010 12:35 |
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by Sara Robinson
 A poll commissioned by DailyKos shows just how far to the right the GOP has been dragged by its right wing...and how far out of step they are with the rest of America.
A village cannot revise village life to suit the village idiot. -- Frank Schaeffer
On Tuesday, the Daily Kos published a new Research 2000 study showing the current state of belief in the GOP. Though the results aren't anything new -- indeed, the study just puts hard numbers to everything we already thought we knew about the right wing -- the data also show, in sharp detail, just how far to the right the GOP has been dragged by its right wing...and how far out of step they are with the rest of America as a result.
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Sunday, 07 February 2010 11:26 |
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by Mike Elk | Truthout
 It was a cold February night when I got together with Irene to watch Obama's first budget address to Congress. Irene was a drop-dead gorgeous woman whose beauty was matched only by her intellect. I had met her at a party a few days earlier, and already I was crazy about her.
I was also crazy about Obama. I had worked on his campaign in the fall of 2008 in my native Western Pennsylvania. Obama was a community organizer who believed in listening to people and using the power of people's voices to shape history. I had such hopes for where our relationship would go in terms of changing this country.
On that cold February night, I was burning with excitement for both Irene and Obama. I didn't know if I was in love with Irene, but I was certainly in love with Obama.
But by the time the cherry blossoms were blooming in early April, though, Irene had dumped me and I was starting to wonder if Obama was bailing on me too. I was disappointed about things ending with Irene, but told myself not to worry, that there would be other women.
Obama was another matter - you can't exactly go to a bar and pick up a new president.
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Sunday, 07 February 2010 09:28 |
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By Brad Jacobson
 The Supreme Court’s seismic January ruling that corporations are free to spend unlimited amounts of their profits to advertise for or against candidates may have been the latest shakeup of campaign finance – but gaping holes already allow corporations to spend enormous sums without leaving a paper trail, a Raw Story investigation has found.
Campaign finance experts confirmed that though disclosure rules remained intact in the new Supreme Court decision, there are effective methods to circumvent them.
Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, an attorney and campaign finance expert at New York University's Brennan Center for Justice, said corporations already effectively end-run campaign finance law by shuffling money through trade associations.
“One of their favorites right now is spending through trade associations,” Torres-Spelliscy said.
Trade associations are considered tax-exempt non-profit organizations under US law. While they must report contributions received from other corporations to the Internal Revenue Service, the document itself remains confidential and is not made available to the public.
Campaign finance experts confirmed that though disclosure rules remained intact in the new Supreme Court decision, there are effective methods to circumvent them.
Link to Original Story
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