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Thomas Paine

To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

15 Dec - Outside the Usual Reporting



Neither here nor there...  It's that time of year
Ralfast has serious moments...this isn't one of them. Wonderful LOL photo...and a blogchain




The Considerate Taliban


A military affairs blogger has posted a bit of media research with some rather, shall we say, unlikely(?) results, RawStoryreported Friday.
It seems that for at least this year, and probably for a few years previously, the Taliban have been playing their assigned role in the great war on terror to the letter and have been considerate enough to stand around in standardized production groups to be attacked and killed by unmanned aerial drones and US and Afghan ground troops.
Groups of not odd numbers like 29 or even 31 of them, but standing there waiting for their martyrization in groups of exactly 30.





If You Believe the Rhetoric of Obama's Nobel Prize Speech...



Anti-Afghan War Escalation Rally Reaches for World That Ought to Be

A new coalition of antiwar organizations, peace and justice advocates, and citizens of conscience in America aim---the End U.S. Wars Coalition---aim to address such questions and will come together this weekend for a rally on Saturday, Dec. 12th, in Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C. Not far from the White House, they will challenge the Nobel Peace Prize winner President Barack Obama and his administration to halt the escalation in Afghanistan and stop the war crimes being committed in countries throughout the Middle East by U.S. forces.




by Woody | December 11, 2009 - 12:32pm New  ( From Antemedius )

Why "We" Are In Afghanistan? Two words: Caspian Basin

All "our" major global antagonists/competitors (except Brazil) have either got borders on the Caspian Sea region, or are situated in sufficient proximity that they can exert some "tactical" influence in the region--not US.
So we have to have bases on the ground near at hand, thereby to subject every person and thing on the ground to the tender ministrations of USer tactical aircraft. The Ginruls call this "extending influence." What it means is having the whole region under USer gun- and bomb-sights from USer tactical aircraft, which are unchallenged in the world...
"I'll hire half the working class to kill off the other half." -- Jay Gould, robber-baron



Listen guys, I hate Joe Lieberman as much as the next guy but if you’re upset about him, you’re a dupe, and you’re being manipulated by characters in a holiday pageant.  He’s not the problem; he’s the designated villain.  His seat is perfectly safe, he can’t be recalled, and you’ll all forget about this in three years when he’s up for re-election.  It’s much more fun to be angry at him than the real villains, because the truth is really depressing.  President Obama and the Democratic leadership are handing billions of dollars to the insurance and pharmaceutical industries and have scripted a drama to carefully shape public opinion to believe that this was the best they could do. 




Harry Reid's Medicare Mess

In lieu of a public option for health-care reform, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced a tentative, still-nebulous compromise this weekthat allows people 55 to 64 to "buy in" to Medicare starting in 2011. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, the buy-in could affect 4 million people without health insurance. And while Reid's plan, concocted with five Democratic and five centrist senators dubbed the "Gang of 10," has been assailed as a major step toward single-payer care (and—gasp!—socialism), other critics do in fact raise raise some serious issues on how Reid's plan completely misses the mark.







Perhaps most telling was this statement by Mayo Clinic executive director Jeffrey Korsmo (read by Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)) earlier this week:

"Expanding the Medicare system to persons 55-64 years old would ultimately hurt patients by accelerating the financial ruin of hospitals and doctors across the country. Mayo Clinic alone has begun to limit the number of Medicare patients and their practices, and the growing number of other providers will. This is clearly an unsustainable model."

Coming from one of the most highly regarded health-care institutions in the nation, it makes you wonder whether Reid's policy has less to do with healthy Americans and more to do with politically palatable solutions.
The Senate passed the omnibus spending bill by a 57-35 vote on Sunday, with the dealer arbitration language intact. 







Buried way down in the fine print of the Congress' $1.1 trillion spending bill, passed Thursday by the House, is a lifeline for an endangered species—the American car dealer.





Michael J. Robinson, a GM vice president and general counsel, told a House subcommittee in July that the move would allow the surviving dealers "to improve the overall customer experience and retain current customers."


However, car salespeople and their allies argue that closing dealerships would have the opposite effect, driving away consumers and possibly even killing the automakers. "When you hear [new GM CEO Ed] Whitacre say, 'Well, we're going to increase market share,' and you don't have as many dealers, you wonder what he's been drinking or smoking," says David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan. "It just doesn't compute."

Antemedius 
 ( Formerly 'Out of Iraq Bloggers' Caucus' )




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