Texas please just go -

The sooner the better! To bad time travel ain't possible - yesterday would be lots better than today.

Take your stupidity and racism and just go -

Even the New Republic is pissed!

Wow! Glory Glory Hallelujah!!! Even the New Republic is pissed with the Blue Dogs and Corporate Democrats and their attempts to destroy Health Care reform.

The magazine I usually refer to as The New Republican has for years been the supporter of the corporate wing of the Democratic Party. Finally they have started to see the light. Last Thursday Glenn Greenwald showed the beginning of the New Republic's rehabilitation from a corporate flack to what it historically was - the spokesmag of the Left. However there is much work yet to be done. I leave it to Greenwald to explain where the New Republic's thinking still stinks:

While it's lovely that The New Republic has now joined that movement and decided that corporate-owned "centrists" need to be purged from the Party, Chait is laboring under complete blindness about the reasons these problems have arisen. Chait accuses me, Dan Froomkin and "liberals" generally of "confusion" because we believe that the Obama White House bears some of the blame in the dominance of corporate interests generally and in the health care battle specifically. Chait echoes the facially absurd excuse of the most hardened Obama loyalists everywhere: namely, that Obama, Rahm Emanuel and friends are just helpless, impotent observers who wield no influence over the health care debate and can do nothing but sit back and hope and pray that the Senate will pass a good, progressive health care reform bill free of excessive servitude to the health care and drug industries. If the Congress refuses to, well that's obviously not Obama's fault -- a President isn't in the Congress and can't really influence what it does, so this excuse-making goes.

For the moment, leave aside all the evidence to the contrary: that, as Chait's colleague Jonathan Cohn detailed, the Obama White House secretly entered into a deal with the drug industry not to negotiate for lower prices; that Obama has repeatedly sought to empower the Baucus-dominated Senate Finance Committee at the expense of more progressive committees; that the White House aggressively threatens, berates, and cajoles House progressives who impede the President's agenda but hasn't done anything against Blue Dogs; that the strategy of the White House from the start has been to ensure that the health care and drug industries are pleased so that they continue to use their ample largesse to fund the Democrats rather than get behind a GOP takeover in 2010; and that Emanuel built his career and power base by controlling the Congress through the expansion of the Blue Dogs and other "centrist" and "conservative" members and by pleasing corporate donors, thus rendering the image of him as a helpless, passive bystander in the health care debate transparent fiction. Even Dick Durbin -- the Senate's number two Democrat -- acknowledges that, even with a huge Democratic majority, the banking industry "frankly owns" the Congress.

More important than all of that is the fact that there is one principal reason that Blue Dogs and "centrists" exert such dominance within the Party: because the Party leadership, led by the Obama White House, wants it that way and works hard to ensure it continues. While Chait seems to envision himself as the pioneering inventor of the primary challenge strategy (something he first articulated six weeks ago), Accountability Now has actually been working continuously for the last year on recruiting credible primary challengers and building an infrastructure to support those challenges -- all in order to unseat the unresponsive, corrupt and corporate-owned incumbents who ensure that the same factions control government no matter which party is in control. But the principal barrier to those efforts has been the accurate perception that the White House and President -- along with key party institutions such as the DCCC -- will use their vast resources to keep Blue Dogs and "centrists" in office and crush any efforts from within the party to unseat them.

It's hard to overstate how many promising potential primary challengers with whom we've spoken -- highly energized and impressive members of City Councils or County Commissions or state legislatures or just private citizens -- who are eager to run against their corporate-owned Democratic Congressional incumbent but are deterred by one primary fear: that Obama and the Party infrastructure will undercut their efforts by actively supporting the Blue Dog incumbent. That fear is particularly pronounced for potential African-American challengers in districts where the corporate-serving "centrist" incumbent is wildly out of step with the interests and views of the typical (and sometimes overwhelmingly African-American) Democratic voter. Such potential challengers anticipate that Obama will intervene on behalf of the Blue Dog against the progressive challenger -- as he's done before -- and sabotage not only their primary challenge but perhaps their future viability as a candidate in their community and district.

That's what makes Chait's insistence that the Obama White House is just an innocent, impotent bystander in all of this so painfully naive and wrong (Obama says he wants a public option, so doesn't that settle it?, asks Chait, vacantly batting his eyes with child-like trust and innocence). When the White House genuinely wants a bill to pass -- rather than paying irrelevant lip service to it -- they know how to apply pressure on the defiant members of Congress

The White House is playing hardball with Democrats who intend to vote against the supplemental war spending bill, threatening freshmen who oppose it that they won't get help with reelection and will be cut off from the White House, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) said Friday.

"We're not going to help you. You'll never hear from us again," Woolsey said the White House is telling freshmen.

Rahm Emanuel, Tom Delay, and the Bush/Cheney White House have left no doubt that where there's a will to influence the actions of Senators and House members in one's own party, there's a way. But the Obama White House has done nothing in the way of attempting to change the behavior of the supposedly obstructionist Blue Dogs and centrists whom Obama-defenders are eager to blame for the health care standstill. In fact, they've done the opposite: Emanuel has repeatedly leapt to their defense and attacked progressives who sought to influence or otherwise put pressure on them to change behavior. White House threats that "you'll never hear from us again" are issued to defiant progressives only. Not only are such threats never issued to "centrists" and Blue Dogs who are supposedly impeding the President's health care agenda, but the White House does everything it can to protect those ostensible obstructionists and further entrench them in power. Isn't all of this fairly strong evidence that the White House knew, accepted and likely even desired from the start that -- despite the President's public assurances to progressives -- the "public option," understandably despised by the insurance industry, would be dropped from bill?

Nobody suggests that the President could easily or single-handedly change the behavior of Kent Conrad or Mike Ross. But there are certainly things -- effective things -- he could do to try, including making it more difficult for those politicians to stay in office, exactly as they threaten to do with defiant progressives. But they don't do that. They do the opposite. The reason that Blue Dogs and "centrists" exert such control in the Democratic Party and are able to ensure the Party remains beholden to corporate interests is because that's how Party leaders want it. That's how the Democratic Party has been built and it's how they continue to maintain their power.

Baucus speaks to Montana!

From the Montana blog Montana Maven's Opinions Worth Ropin' it looks like the nice folks of Montana have finally put some heat under Senator Baucus - good for them!

This is the press release from the Coalition of Montana Democratic Central Committees:

FOLLOWING RANCOR AMONG THE RANKS, BAUCUS ASSURES MONTANA CONSTITUENTS:
"I WANT A PUBLIC OPTION TOO"

U.S. Senator Max Baucus has finally broken his silence regarding his personal position on including a public option in health care reform legislation. Last Monday night (8/17), in an unprecedented conference call to Montana Democratic central committee chairs, the powerful leader of the Senate Finance Committee told his strongest supporters that he supported a public option. While discussing the obstacles to getting a public option through the Senate, he assured his forty listeners, "I want a public option too!" The conference call was groundbreaking in that none of the recipients could ever remember this kind of call ever happening before. The teleconference was set up seemingly in reaction to rising discontent among the local Democratic leaders with the Senator's failure to take a clear position on the issue. The discussion, which became contentious and rancorous at times, also touched upon the wisdom of creating insurance cooperatives as an alternative to a public option.

When several of the county chairs objected, commenting that they did not trust the health insurance companies to police themselves and limit their outrageous corporate profits, Baucus commented, "Neither do I."

In the aftermath of the teleconference, a coalition of eighteen Montana counties in the Senator's home state decided to move forward with their plan to issue a Unified Statement accompanied by a joint press release. The statement sends a loud and clear message to their Senator: Any health care reform package coming out of his Senate Finance Committee must contain, at a minimum, a provision for a strong public option. The action is a show of unity not previously seen in Montana political history. The statement asserts, "Here in Montana, the need for real health care reform could not be greater. Families, small business, and small ranches and farms are suffering and being crushed by the rising cost of health care. Thousands of Montanans are uninsured, and many more are losing their homes, businesses and ranches due to exorbitant medical bills."

Calling themselves the Coalition of the United Montana Democratic Central Committees, the group's statement announces it has "established a position in support of a strong public option as an essential element in health care reform." In specifying the necessary components needed for such a public option, they list:

• National Coverage
• Availability to all Americans
• Portability, which includes maintaining coverage even if one loses his or her job
• No exclusions for preexisting conditions, denial of coverage if one gets ill, or develops catastrophic costs
• Publicly run and administered with full transparency and accountability to congress
• No triggers

Christina Quijano, a Billings physician, is Chair of the Carbon County Democratic Central Committee. Carbon County is located in south-central Montana not far from Yellowstone National Park. Speaking for the Coalition, she pointed out, "For this number of counties from all across Montana to join together sends a strong signal to our representatives in Washington that their constituents here in Big Sky Country are unified and stand firm in their insistence that a public option be included in any health care reform bill." Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont) has said he would not vote against a public option, while Montana’s sole US representative, Denny Rehberg (R-Mont) remains opposed to such a measure. Max Baucus, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, has emerged as a key player in the ongoing health care reform deliberations and, until now, has remained quiet about his personal view. In the final portion of the Coalition's Unified Statement, Quijano emphasizes Senator Baucus’ significant role in this piece of legislation: "We are counting on Senator Baucus to use his influence and leadership to create the most meaningful legacy of our times, real health care reform. 'Max, Montana's Senator', please don't let Montana down!"

Is Bingaman Obama's man in the Gang of Six?

One other statement came out of the last 3rd Thursday Meeting - this time if was from Bingaman's representative at the meeting. During his defense of Bingaman's involvement with the Gang he justified this treachery by informing us that Senator Bingaman was Obama's man in the Gang of Six. I assume he thought it might calm the crowd - trust me it didn't.

Wonder if Obama knows this?

Baucus must go -

Please go to Credo Action and sign the petition to tell Senate Dems to get rid of Max Baucus - the Insurance Industry's best friend in the Senate.

Another meaningless Heath Haussamen poll

Up today at his Republican leaning blog is another of Heath H's unscientific polls. This one's title is "In the health-care reform debate, which of these ideas do you support?".

Please have at it!

In the health-care reform debate, which of these ideas do you support?
	A public option
	Non-profit co-ops
	Neither
	I don’t know
Free polls from Pollhost.com

A "Tell" from Heinrich's chief of staff

From Wikipedia:

A tell in poker is a subtle but detectable change in a player's behavior or demeanor that gives clues to that player's assessment of his hand.

Outside of poker a "Tell" is an inadvertent release of information while discussing an issue.

In this case the Tell occurred during last night's Third Thursday meeting. The topic was of course health care. There were representatives from Heinrich, Bingaman and Udall. Steve Haro, Martin Heinrich's chief of staff, was probably the most talkative of the three and the source of the Tell.

During an exchange where he was asked if Martin would join the 60 other members of the House that had signed a pledge promising not to vote for a Health Care Reform bill without a strong public option he challenged the fact that such a list existed and then came the "Tell" when he said that if such a list existed Health Care reform was already dead.

Tells are always tied to a hidden piece of information - in this case the inference is clear - the public option won't be part of the bill and if there are indeed 60 members of the House that won't vote for it without a public option the bill is dead.

We can only hope that this is true - what Baucus & Associates (the Gang of 6 including our very own Jeff Bingaman) are crafting will no doubt be worse than the present situation. Better to do nothing than enact a bill written by and for the health care industry.

There was one amusing aside - Haro thanked us for his job. Sad to say it but the way things are going he needs to enjoy it now because he won't have it for long.

Ruh! Roh! There goes Whole Foods!

Wow, via JUSIPER and then OpenLeft looks like the CEO and founder of Whole Foods, a.k.a. Whole Paycheck, stuck his foot is some of Scooby Doo's doodoo when he published an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal blasting the whole ideal of Health Care Reform. Seems all we have to do is free Mr Market from its shackles, let Insurance Companies do anything they want and everything will be hunky dory over night. Sini at JUSIPER feels a boycott of Whole Foods in in order. Fine with me, I can do without listening to announcements like "Phone call for Natural Living" over their PA system, but I will miss their bakery - its the only decent one in town.

Bingaman has turned his back on New Mexicans

For several weeks now I and others have become increasingly upset with Senator Jeff Bingaman and his work with the Gang of Six to torpedo health care reform. This felling only grew after his interview with the Albuquerque Journal last Saturday.

For whatever reason Jeff Bingaman has decided to "negoiate" with 2 fellow Democrats (M. Baucus & K. Conrad) and 3 Republicans (C. Grassley, O. Snowe & M. Enzi) to come up with a "bipartisan" bill to shove down out throats. The leaders of this special gang of 6 are Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley. They are both notable for how much money they have received in political contributions form the Health Care Industry and how strongly they oppose the "Public Option". Just to get the numbers straight:

- Senator Max Baucus Senate Finance Committee chairman and recipient of "$3 million from the health and insurance sectors from 2003 to 2008" (about 20% of the total donations from that sector)

- Senator Chuck Grassley - he's gotten about $2,000,000 from the same folks since 2003

Those are indeed large numbers. Certainly they are both bought and paid for representatives of the Health Care Industry. But, as they say, it only gets better! Now it turns out that not only is Jeff Bingaman sitting at a table with Health Care Industry flacks but also a "Deather" and that's no other than Senator Chuck Grassley, his partner in these "bipartisan" negotiations. From the Iowa Independent

“In the House bill, there is counseling for end of life,” Grassley said. “You have every right to fear. You shouldn’t have counseling at the end of life, you should have done that 20 years before. Should not have a government run plan to decide when to pull the plug on grandma.”

That should end the charade of Grassley's bipartisan concern for Health Care. Grassley got up and lied in front of a group of folks in Iowa and knew it when he did so. How can anyone take his "bipartisan" concerns seriously now?

Its time for New Mexico's senior Senator to stand up and condemn Grassley for his lies and Baucus for his corruption and end the charade that this little gang of 6 has any bipartisan concern for Health Care Reform at all. Jeff - as my dearly departed granny used to say "birds of a feather do flock together!"

Birther nonsense

This simply can't be seen enough! Bill Maher deals with the birther nonsense.

Enrique Ortez Colindez talks about Obama and the US

This is way too funny.

As the US State Department turns its back on Democracy and negotiates with the illegal government in Honduras the "new" Honduran Secretary of State gives us a taste of its mindset. One has to hand it to them though - even the most right winged racist Republican on the planet would never ever use the term "pickaninny" to refer to Obama but here we see a Honduran "Official" throwing it out without a moment's hesitation. One wonders if the US State Department will ever learn.

Tim Kaine's record on Gay rights -

I wondered if DBY in the post below had been fair to Tim Kaine, former Governor of Virginia and current head of the Democratic Party. On Google I used the search phrase/words:

         Tim Kain gay record

What you find below is from the results of the first half of the first page of that search. You decide -

From Rod 2.0:Beta when Kaine was being considered for VP:

The icing on the cake is Kaine's woeful record on gay rights—against gay adoption, partner benefits, discrimination legislation, and ,of course, against same-sex marriage and supported the amendment that now bans gay marriage in the Commonwealth. The Virginia governor also has the distinction of running one of the more creative gay-baiting campaigns in recent history, branding his anti-gay Republican opponent "having a gay sounding voice."

From a Washington Blade article titled "Va. House approves gay marriage ban amendment":

Kaine spokeswoman Delacey Skinner said that the governor-elect will sign the bill to call for a referendum. Kaine supports the amendment and opposes civil unions, she said. She added that he is interested in discussing measures “to make sure people can still be able to contract with each other.”

From a 2005 post to Sic Semper Tyrannis, a Virgina blog, we get an analysis of Kaine's statements showing how he moved over time to support Virgina's constitutional amendment banning both recognition of Gay Marriage and Civil Unions :

"I think the institution of marriage is fine. I don’t believe we need to create an alternative," Kaine tells Style. "Gays and lesbians should not be discriminated against in housing, or employment. When the question came up in the debate I said I support changing the state discrimination laws to [include gays]."

.....

"I have never said I supported gay civil unions, gay marriages," Kaine told the AP last Friday. "I do believe that people shouldn’t be kicked out of their jobs or discriminated against because of who they are."

.....

"Marriage between a man and a woman is the building block of the family and a keystone of our civil society. It has been so for centuries in societies around the world. I cannot agree with a court decision suddenly declaring that marriage must now be redefined to include unions between people of the same gender.

"Virginia defines marriage as being between a man and a woman and I strongly support that law. Regardless of the court ruling today in another state, I am confident that there is nothing in the Virginia or federal constitutions that would require Virginia to alter its longstanding policy about marriage."

.....

The Democrat [Tim Kaine] also insisted that he opposes gay marriage and gay civil unions but supports contractual rights for gay and lesbian Virginians.

Kilgore said he favors a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, which Kaine opposes.

.....

Kilgore and Kaine said they support a constitutional amendment banning gay marriages. Both said they disapprove of adoptions by gay couples.

But Kaine said that when he was a missionary in Honduras, he witnessed orphans who were treated "hellaciously." As a consequence, he would favor allowing individual gays or lesbians to adopt, so long as they create a loving environment, he said.

I could go on but its clear that Tim Kaine opposes gay civil unions, gay marriage, and adoption by gay couples. The good news is that he doesn't support beating up gays and lesbians because of their sexual orientation. I guess we should be glad for that.

Remember that Barack Obama appointed Tim Kaine as the head of the Democratic Party and considered him for the VP slot. As DBY says the signs were clearly there early on - either Barack Obama is a homophobe or simply doesn't care about LesBiGay rights. Sadly we put hope before reality now we must accept and deal with our mistake.

DBY gets it right - the Democratic Party isn't a friend to the Gay Community

Comments are great things to read. Sometimes they get to the bones of a problem faster than any series of articles could. The comment below is a perfect example of that. From a comment to an Editorial titled Don’t Let Our ‘Leaders’ Give Cover to Obama published in the NewYork Blade DBY describes the problem the LesBiGay Community is having with the Democratic Party perfectly. DBY says:

Welcome under the bus, my fellow gay Americans! Some of us have been here for a while. I started realizing something was amiss with Obama when he stood side-by-side with Donnie McClurkin, James Meeks, Mary Mary early in the primaries. And then refused to be interviewed by gay publications for most of the Democratic primaries. And then refused to have his picture taken with the (heterosexual!) Gavin Newsom. And then refused to attend the Chicago Pride Parade last summer. And then had Douglas Kmiec, major opponent of gay marriage, campaign for him in CA just as Prop 8 heated up. And then came Rick Warren. And the snubbing of Bishop Robinson. You see a pattern developing, don’t you? But even for someone who’s been paying attention to Obama’s homobigotry as much as me I was stunned by the DOMA-DOJ brief. The Administration sunk to a new low. And it’s time to stop making apologies for Obama’s actions. Let’s look reality in the eye and take our rights, even if they refuse to give them. The idea that we must “wait our turn” is absurd. We didn’t start asking for our rights last month!

The problem, sadly, is bigger than just Obama and his Administration. It is also the wider DNC. Tim Kaine, head of the DNC, is a rabid homophobe. And let us not forget that Donna Brazile famously declared that comparing gay rights to civil rights is an “affront to the civil rights movement.” Nancy Pelosi says she wants Congress to stay out of gay marriage. Harry Reid says he wants to see DADT addressed “Administratively.” Obama says his hands are tied and he can’t do anything! Excuse me, but so-called “Democrats” are controlling all three branches of government and nobody wants to touch gay rights with a 10 foot pole? Everyone likes to run around screaming that Bill Clinton gave us DOMA. Actually, the President doesn’t write legislation. Congress does. Congress wrote DOMA and passed it. Have you looked at the vote? House passed it 342-67. Senate passed it 85-14. Look at those numbers! I wish President Clinton vetoed the bill, but those numbers are not only veto proof, they wipe the floor with the Presidential veto. That’s a lot of Democrats voting for DOMA. Many of those same Democrats are still in Congress today. Let us not kid ourselves that Democrats are any better on this than Republicans. When Darth Cheney is to the left of Democrats on gay marriage….we have a serious problem on our hands! And the problem won’t go away until we ask for payment upfront from Democrats from now on. Not “We’ll help you now if you help us later.” No, DNC has to do something for us first. No more “I owe you’s!”

New Mexico needs a new Sheriff

An endorsement - Greg Solano for Lt. Governor
because
New Mexico needs a new Sheriff

Thursday night at Bernalillo County's monthly Third Thursday meeting many of us meet Greg Solano, Sheriff of Santa Fe County, for the first time and were won over. In fact I was so impressed I just made a small donation to his campaign via Act Blue. You can find his campaign's web site here and page for donations here.

From a practical political point of view he's new, has a fantastic life story, free of all the mess, corruption and political infighting in the Democratic Party and knows how to work a crowd. I walked out of the meeting a happy political camper knowing he has the stuff to go the distance and would be an asset to the Party who will work with Diane Denish to win next year. As far as I am concerned we have our candidate for Lt. Governor. Now its time to move on.

Obama's Plan for Gay Rights

before the sun sets on this administration

Well the Obama Admin trotted out John Berry, their highest ranking gay guy to talk to the Advocate - find the brief interview here.

Here's the money quote from Berry:

We have four broad legislative goals that we want to accomplish and legislation is one of these things where you’ve got to move when the opportunity strikes, so I’m going to list them in an order but it’s not necessarily going to go one, two, three, four. Obviously, I think the first opportunity is hate crimes and we’re hopeful that we can get that passed this week. We’re going to try, but if not, we’re going to keep at it until we get it passed. The second one ENDA, we want to secure that passage of ENDA, and third is we want to repeal legislatively “don’t ask don’t tell,” and fourth, we want to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

Now, I’m not going to pledge -- and nor is the president -- that this is going to be done by some certain date. The pledge and the promise is that, this will be done before the sun sets on this administration – our goal is to have this entire agenda accomplished and enacted into law so that it is secure.

So folks "before the sun sets on this administration" they will try to get something done.

Looks like we have just been thrown back under the bus by yet another Democratic Administration.

Blogs for DOMA updates

Since the Daily Kos and others only function in the current Obama DOMA mess is to say the LesBiGay Community needs to calm down and everything is just wonderful here's a few sites that are letting folks know what's happening and what it all means:

AMERICAblog
Pam's House blend ...always steamin'!
hunter for justice
WordInEdgewise
The Volokh Conspiracy

Others will be added as I find 'em!

Update - 061909, 10:04 PM
WhoRunsGov.com - The Plum Line
the widdershins
Washington Blade
New York Blade

Its becomming clear - Obama is no friend to the gay community.

As I have looked around today on liberal blogs its has become clear that if mentioned at all there is not much concern about Obama's DOJ defending DOMA. In MyDD Josh Orton first seems concerned then in less than an hour added an update where he pronounced it was no big deal. Most of the comments on his posting seemed to express the same view. Nowhere did anybody ask about Obama's track record on gay rights.

To me the real basis of the uproar is very simple - its not about DOMA per se its about Obama's record or rather lack of a record on gay rights since coming to the White House. To date he has done nothing to repeal DOMA or Don't Ask - Don't Tell, end the travel ban for HIV positive individuals or support gay marriage. In fact his view on gay marriage closely reslembles those of leading Republican homophobes.

The Liberal community will excuse us while we make a bit of noise while we throw a fit - we are just realizing Obama was a major mistake.

Obama's betrayal to the gay community continues -

Everybody is all over this - seems that Obama's Dept. of Justice has decided to trash the Gay community while it defends the homophobic DOMA bill signed by Bill Clinton. For the latest and greatest on this see Andrew at the Daily Dish, Pam at Pam's House Blend and a host of others.

For a good round up go to John Aravosis' post at AMERICAblog.

So much for Obama's promises to the LesBiGay Community. Seems the invite to Rev. Wright was more of a harbinger of things to come than even I thought.

Summit on LGBT Rights

Well the secret is out -



The only reason I know about it is because I walked out the door of a meeting at just the right time to overhear a conversation about the upcoming 'Summit".

We will see if we can slow the domestic partnership freight train. Why "they" want to agree to a second class status for Lesbian and Gays is really beyond me.

Update: Please note that the flyer only invites representatives of Organizations not members of the Community to the "Summit" (see the first sentence below the red line). Also, the next sentence is quite telling - its seems the discussion will be aimed at building support for the "next steps" not determining what the "next steps" will be. It seems that we, the little people, need a lecture about what the "next steps" should be.