Southerner begging to get his ass kicked
To their credit, although it took them more than 130 years to ban their pro-slavery mascot, the University of Mississippi had already banned Colonel Reb a few years ago, along with waving the Confederate flag at sporting events.
Now, apparently, they are trying to decide on a new mascot. Got any suggestions for them?
There seems to be only one means to achieve bi-partisan support for a bill – lard it with pork. Or make it a pork-only bill, with cash for everybody’s constituents!
Case in point – 5 members of the GOP, hearing the “Woo pig sooie!” siren call of pork-barrell spending, crossed the aisle to vote for the so-called Jobs Bill.
The Repugs used this to good effect in the early post-9/11 days of the Shrubya Preznitcy to bring Democrat pigs to vote on their bills – Remember those bipartisan bamboozles such as the Agribusiness Handout of 2008, the original Agribusiness Handout of 2003, and perhaps the most odious piece of legislation ever, the Big Energy Handout of 2003?
That must be why the Health Care Bill stalled out…insufficient pork!
Not surprising, but irritating nonetheless – heading of CITES at the pass, Japan says they’ll buy and eat the last damn bluefin tuna regardless of scientific research and world opinion.
Where is the Kevin Rudd of the Mediterranean? The Bob Barker of Bluefin?
I’m with Karzai on condemning the recent NATO attack on a convoy that included women and children. I seriously doubt we’re going to win this war anyway, but I’m positive we won’t win it by dropping bombs on civilians.
It didn’t work for the Soviets and it won’t work for us. If we must pursue this war because of our Leader’s peculiar obsessions, then let’s do with with more (multinational) boots on the ground. At least a sniper would be more likely to see the lil’ kid waving from the back of the mini-van.
*Update 2/25/10* It’s not just air attacks that are killing civilians. Check out these statistics on the kids killed by both sides in the Afghanistan conflict.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd tells the Japanese to stop whaling by November 2010. Good on ya, mate! Why can’t our Dem leaders grow a pair?
Barbara O’Brien of Mahablog fame asked to post on Needlenose. Happy to post anything that bashes Confederates, particulary of the reactionary persuasion, so here goes:
Recently I wrote here that Mississippi has the worst health care in the nation. Now I want to tell the story about how desperate Mississippians, abandoned by their government, turned to Iran for help.
Bt first, I want to tell you about Mississippi’s infant mortality rate. The rate of infant mortality is the number of infants who are born alive but die before their first birthday, per 1,000 live births. In other words, if infant mortality is 5, that means that 5 of every 1,000 babies in that population will not survive the first year of life.
According to the CIA World Factbook, the estimated infant mortality rate in the United States for 2009 is 6.22, which is high for an industrialized democracy. But according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the infant mortality rate in Mississippi is 11.4. Only Florida is worse, at 14.1. By contrast, the infant mortality rate for Washington and Minnesota is 5.1.
Now, here’s where Iran comes in — according to the Times of London, last October “five top Iranian doctors, including a senior official at the health ministry in Tehran, were quietly brought to Mississippi” to advise Mississippians how to lower their infant mortality rate.
This exchange came about when James Miller, managing director of Oxford International Development Group, was consulting in a rural Mississippi hospital. “He was shocked to find that the state had the third highest medical expenditure per capita, but came last in terms of outcome,” the Times article said.
Miller remembered a conference presentation on how Iran radically lowered its infant mortality rates. Facing a shortage of doctors and hospitals, the government launched a program of “health houses” staffed by local people trained to be health workers. The health workers are authorized to provide basic medical services such as diabetes monitoring as well as prenatal and obstetric care. Infant and maternal mortality rates both fell dramatically as a result.
James Miller contacted Iranian doctors to find out if their program might be applied to Mississippi. So the Iranian doctors came to Mississippi to give advice. Although the idea of following an Iranian model was a hard sell in Mississippi, at least one community has begun work on an Iranian style “health house” to provide better care for pregnant women abandoned by Mississippi’s health care system.
Dr Aaron Shirley, who worked with James Miller on the Iranian project, admitted they were staying under the radar. Mississippi government officials, including Governor Haley Barbour, were not involved or informed.
This takes us back to the issue identified in the earlier post — Mississippi has the worst health care in the nation, but as far as Gov. Barbour is concerned, this is not a problem. The governor is perfectly clear, on his website and in public pronouncements, that Mississippi fixed its health care problems by passing a comprehensive tort reform bill in 2004. The 2004 law affected all kinds of personal injury lawsuits in Mississippi.
In the U.S., state after state has passed “tort reform” laws that make it harder for citizens to file personal injury suits and also limit the amount of damages they can receive. This is a critical issue for people with asbestos-related disease such as mesothelioma cancer, who so often need damage awards to care for themselves and their families. “Tort reform” also is being pushed by conservatives nationwide as the way to fix the nation’s health care crisis.
But Mississippi reformed tort in 2004, and it still has the worst health care in the nation. What did Governor Barbour “fix,” exactly?
-Barbara O’Brien
Another reactionary terror attack! At least they only kill Confederates.
Don’t bother sending us any more airplane suicide bombers, Osama Bin Laden, American Reactionaries are just dying to kill us themselves – case in point, an anti-tax wing-nut just Kamikaze’d his private plane into an IRS building in Texas. You can read his twisted rantings here if you want to go to the trouble – it’s nothing you wouldn’t find on any other stupid wing-nut blog.
One thing I don’t understand – the guy was so anti-tax that he was driven to kill himself and various random bureaucrats – but he had his own private plane for fucks’ sake! I can’t afford a fucking private plane! We didn’t tax him enough! Texas doesn’t even have a state income tax for Christ’s sake!
Typical whiny reactionary terrorist putz. America wake up – the Enemy is Within!
* Update 2-22-10* Like father like daughter? Joe Stack’s daughter considers her father a hero! Only in the topsy-turvy world of the wing-nuts are people who attack government offices heroes! Just like a decorated veteran like Kerry gets swift-boated so his draft-dodging, war criminal opponent can get another 4 years, or abortion-doctor killer is aided and abetted and kept out of the hands of justice for several years.
*Update 2 2-22-10* It’s not just the guy’s daughter casting our domestic wing-nut terrorist as a hero – Repug Rep. Steve King calls on fellow reactionaries to implode their local IRS offices!
Come on Dem leadership, grow a pair! This is what I’m talkin’ about:
And this is just a Canadian!!!
Tip of the ‘Nose to Recruiter Buddy!
Enjoying the Shrubya taxcuts the Democravens won't rescind
The Class War is over. We lost. These guys won.
David Dayen at Firedoglake wrote this morning about how Sen. Richard Shelby’s attempt to block 70 Obama administration nominees over a couple of earmarks “does amount to what you would call a ‘teachable moment’ about the dysfunctional Senate.”
In his initial reaction overnight, Josh Marshall went a bit further, noting that Shelby’s hostage-taking attempt showed “gallons more audacity than Obama ever could have hoped for”:
… I wonder if this story might not end up amounting to much more than the sum of its parts because it brings together three or four of the issues roiling American politics today in a bundle of smack-you-in-the-face arrogance that’s too much to ignore.
For Republicans and the Tea Party set you’ve got pork-barrel spending and earmarks… for Democrats, there’s the outrage at archaic Senate obstructionism.
Perhaps more important, it crystallizes the essential pettiness and hubris of the Republican in such a vivid way that even Democrats should be able to sell the image of GOP selfishness to a generally inattentive public.
It’s happened before, back in 1995 when Newt Gingrich led the newly Republican-controlled Congress in forcing a shutdown of the federal government, trying to force President Clinton to capitulate on budget issues. Thanks to an inopportune remark by Gingrich about a personal snub he had received from Clinton, the White House successfully embarrassed the GOP into ending the standoff.
That Shelby would try such a stunt barely a couple of weeks after the Republicans snagged their coveted 41st Senate seat shows that his party hasn’t outgrown Gingrich’s penchant for overreach. But, as D-Day also wrote today, President Obama and the Democratic leadership can’t let themselves be even less willing to stand up for their own interests than the famed triangulator, Clinton.
Perhaps Obama should make a high-profile visit to various GOP senators’ home states, asking locals if they’re as fond of Shelby’s earmarks as Massachusetts voters were of Ben Nelson’s “Cornhusker kickback.” Or maybe there’s a better attention-getting maneuver.
But hell, they need to do something. Don’t let this teachable moment pass.
(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)
