Author Archives: cassandra_m

About cassandra_m

"You don't make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas." -Shirley Chisholm

Late Night Awesome — Photos of the Solar System

We’ve been sending up exploratory missions (mostly unmnanned) through our solar system for quite some time — they are so routine that there generally isn’t much news when they go up. Unless something fails. We forget that scientists and engineers are working daily to discover more about the planets and other bodies close to us and that they are still making jaw-dropping discoveries. The October edition of Smithsonian Magazine has an article about the very high quality photos that are coming out of these expeditions, which are themselves jaw-dropping:

Photo of Saturn from Cassini showing new rings

Photo of Saturn from Cassini showing new rings

Cracks and folds on the ice-covered Saturnian moon Enceladus

Cracks and folds on the ice-covered Saturnian moon Enceladus

Two moons of Saturn

Two moons of Saturn

Sun Erupts in flares from ultraviolet telescope

SUn Erupts in flares from ultraviolet telescope

Mars Rover captures picture of crater wall

Mars Rover captures picture of crater wall

There’s more at the link of these planets, the sun, and Mercury and Jupiter — just click on the box on the right to see the slide show

Friday Afternoon Bacon Blogging — Bacon is Good for Me Remixed!

First up — RSmitty is totally in the spirit with this lunch today of Bacon Alfredo Pizza from Lean Cuisine. Now, Bacon Alfredo does not exactly compute with Lean Cuisine, but one day we’ll hook this Independent brotha up with an expense account lunch of filet wrapped in bacon with a Bacon Martini to wash it down:

SmittysLunchBacon

Next — the Bacon is Good for Me Video Remixed! This is alot of fun, with lots of bacon-themed stuff. Funniest among them might be the bacon iPod holder. Thanks to LG for this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRGz9xSP_SA[/youtube]

It’s Fall now, so I guess BLTs are going to be rare now. Ideas for Fall bacon recipes?

Proof No. XVIII On Why Conservatives Really Don’t Care About Small Government or Stopping Spending

Senate Finance Committee Approves Amendment Providing Millions for Abstinence Education

So here we go again. Senator Orin Hatch proposed this amendment which would provide $50 million per year through 2014 solely for abstinence education programs. These are the same experimental programs that have been shown to be a failure and that President Obama cut from the budget because they do not work. But you can count on Republicans in congress to tell people in town halls that the spending has to stop, that we have to stop spending money on ineffective programs or (the best of all) that you can only trust repubs with your money. But the minute one of their craziest constituencies creams, they are perfectly willing to waste whatever money it takes. And spending this money on abstinence-only is a waste.

All repubs and two “conservative” Democrats voted to waste your money this way. In the scheme of thing this is not alot of money, but when this committee should be working at figuring out how to pay for health insurance overhaul, insisting using this bill to waste money on more failure is criminal.

Newt Gingrich FAIL — Oops, He Did It Again!

Remember when we told you about Newtie awarding Entrepreneur of the Year to a porn exec? Well, he’s at it again, except this time making the owner of one of Dallas’ premiere “gentlemen’s clubs” the Entrepreneur of the Year:

Dawn Rizos, owner of The Lodge, which the Morning News calls “one of the best-known gentlemen’s clubs in Dallas,” was named an “Entrepreneur of the Year” by Gingrich’s conservative group. And then Gingrich rescinded the invitation to a private D.C. dinner — along with Rizos’ $5,000 donation to Gingrich’s group, American Solutions for Winning the Future.

Isn’t this fun? Not only do you get to take a look at Newt Gingrich fundraising in a particularly sleazy way (how many Entrepreneurs of the Year can there be?) but Mr. “Family Values” keeps picking business representatives that are not going to make his wingnut base happy. Gingrich and Al Sharpton are touring the US to talk about education (Do.Not.Ask), but if you got the pictures, holla at us!

Chart of the Day

The latest Kaiser Family Foundation poll is out and the news is pretty good, actually:
Blog_Kaiser_Healthcare_Summer_Poll

We’ve apparently recovered from the Summer of Spittle as The President got back into the game, as real bills came closer to closure, as the lies repubs were telling about the bills got sorted. Interesting findings from the poll above:

  • Republicans and political independents became markedly more pessimistic about health reform in August, but those viewpoints softened in September. While 49 percent of Republicans say their family would be worse off if health reform passes, this is down from 61 percent in August. The percentage of independents saying they would be worse off fell from 36 percent in August to 26 percent this month. […]
  • Fifty-seven percent of the public — including 56% of independents — say the GOP is opposing reform plans more for political reasons than because they think reform will be bad for the country. […]
  • Fifty-seven percent of the public say they would support “having health insurance companies pay a fee based on how much business they have” and 59 percent would support “having health insurance companies pay a tax for offering very expensive policies.” In both cases, Republicans are evenly divided while Democrats and political independents tilt in favor. […]
  • Seniors are still less convinced than others that health reform will benefit them, but they too have become less pessimistic since August. The share of seniors who think their family would be better off if reform passes climbed 8 percentage points from August, from 23 percent to 31 percent. Twenty-eight percent thought they would be worse off, and 33 percent said it wouldn’t make a difference. Fifty-five percent of seniors said they were ‘confused.”[…]

If anything, this indicates that Democrats do not need to be overly cautious here, and getting something done in November ought to be possible. It also means that the wingnuts will likely ramp up the scare tactics aimed at your grandparents too.

Breaking: Carper Votes Against Rockfeller Public Option –UPDATED

Via Steve Benen:

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) proposed a robust public option, with funding tied to Medicare rates. The final vote was not close — every Republican on the panel voted against it, as did Democratic Sens. Max Baucus (Mont.), Kent Conrad (N.D.), Tom Carper (Del.), Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), and Bill Nelson (Fla.). Of those, Carper’s opposition came as something of a surprise, as did Nelson’s vote.

The final vote, then, was eight to 15.

The Schumer Amendment is coming up for a vote — and his amendment adds a Public Option similar to the one in the HELP bill. Not tied to Medicare rates, but rates negotiated as if it were a separate insurance company.

Also via Benen– the Schumer vote is done:

The committee just voted, and defeated Schumer’s measure, 10 to 13. Two Dems who voted against the Rockefeller Amendment — Bill Nelson and Tom Carper — switched to support this approach, but Baucus, Conrad, and Lincoln still voted with the GOP.

So Carper did finally vote for a Public Option. Baucus is still shilling for his co-ops and the other two need to lose their seats.

The Largest Free Clinic in the United States

This should not be in a first world country:

  • 1300 people showed up for a free dental clinic in Parkesburg, WVA.
  • Then. the Remote Area Medical crew see 1500 people per day, in a free clinic over 8 days in Los Angeles.
  • This weekend, 2000 people in Houston came to a free clinic (Texas having the largest uninsured population in the country)

And don’t forget that Remote Area Medical pretty routinely conducts clinics in rural parts of the US, providing medical, dental and vision service to the uninsured.

You cannot lay claim to the best health care in the world if massive numbers of your citizens have to wait for a British charity to provide that care. Period.

Make sure you call Senator Tom Carper today to tell him to vote for a public option — because that is the only way to keep insurance companies honest and to ensure that everyone gets access to the best health care in the world.

What Will Tom Carper Do to Protect Drug or Insurance Companies This Week?

This is Week 2 of the Finance Committee amending the Chairman’s Mark of the health insurance reform bill, and I wanted to start this week by reminding everyone of Carper’s rather complete abandonment of the voters in Delaware to clearly sit at the table negotiating for and protecting the drug companies and the insurance companies who fund his campaigns. This video was posted in a number of comments last week, but it is worth seeing again:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJa_kTXad1Q[/youtube]

This behavior was brazen enough for even the News Journal to put up a headline that you don’t have to be a blogger to love:

CarperDrugHeadlineNJ09025

And this headline was attached to an article that explicitly made the link between his defense of the Phrma Deal and his campaign contributions. Carper is not alone here, but Senator Chuck Schumer has the right attitude (for a change):

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) pointed out yesterday that it was perfectly understandable that the drug makers, being publicly traded companies, would fight to preserve their profit margins for the sake of shareholders. But Congress, Schumer added, is bound to different interests. “We don’t represent their stockholders,” he said. “We represent our stockholders — the U.S. taxpayers.”

Carper continued his complete abandonment of Delaware voters by showing up on CNN to advocate for letting the GOP continue to try to gut this effort. And we are supposed to pretend that this is bipartisanship, I guess.

Call Carper’s office this week and remind him that he should not be defending deals with drug companies or insurance companies until he has gotten a good deal for us done first.

Tom Carper Wants to Give In to the GOP on Health Care

Watch this video of Carper on CNN yesterday — captured by Jed over at dKos:

Oh yes, this will work. Cave in on the contentious 20% so the obstructionists can create another 20% to, you know, obstruct on. While I am really clear that Senator Carper is definitely sitting at the table for this health reform bill on behalf of his pharmaceutical and insurance funders — not on behalf of the people of Delaware — I am stunned that he can be so stupid as to still think that there is any bipartisanship to be had here. His so-called GOP friends are just looking to stop as much as they can — so how is it that Carper cannot see that he isn’t being played here? And played Big Time, too.