I have 2 words: GO ROCKY!

I live in Grangeville, which may be the most liberal town between Boise and Coeur D'alene, so maybe I'm a little skewed, but ID-01 may not be quite as wing-nutty as it appears.  Lately, Democrats have been getting some victories at the county and city level.  You see the wing-nut letters to the editor, but you also see rebuttals from citizens.  I think this area has a little more of a clue than some think.

At least Walt voted for the House leadership (Nancy Pelosi), and I congratulated him on that, but gave him hell on the climate bill.

Nathan, you make sure to let Walt know that there are some progressives around, and we are in his party too!

Mark

Nice piece.  It's good to review the fact that many of the societal evolutionary steps taken in this country originate in the Military.  I hope that gay/lesbian inclusion is the next step.

I served as an enlisted male in the US Navy from 1980 until 2000, when I retired.  My first ship was an aircraft carrier, which, of course, is a combat ship; therefore it couldn't have women assigned at the time.  My second ship was submarine tender.  It had no offensive or defensive weapons, and so was considered a support auxiliary ship.  As such, women were assigned to it and, indeed, made up to nearly 50% of the crew.  

I was in a supervisory position, running a shop with between 12 and 15 sailors for over 2 years.  I would hear some of the guys constantly complain about women in the Navy.  I never understood this, and for 2 reasons.  While the work we did was not routinely physically demanding, at times it could be, yet I saw no difference in the performance between men and women. Some of the guys would bust ass and do a good job, and some of them were slugs.  Some of the women would bust ass and do a good job, and some of them were slugs.  Didn't matter whether the work was routine or physical, some were good, some weren't.  The other reason is, I thought it was nice and somewhat civilized to smell some perfume every now and then instead of a bunch of stanky-assed guys all day!

"Re: Memo to Wall Street whiners

I still never quite get why corporations have "rights".  

by j royale on Thu May 28, 2009 at 10:58:50 AM EST"

QFT!

Charles

FWIW, I think you have done an excellent analysis of the situation, and agree that, while not there (yet), progress is beginning to be made with regards to the corporatocracy that exists mainly thanks to the supremes.  If we keep up the pressure on Obama, maybe he will find a supreme nominee that is at least willing to hear arguments regarding this.  Keep up the good work!

It's not happening yet in what seem to me to be any significant way.  I would love to get my 6% mortgage down to 4 1/2%, just waiting.

I thought the Barny Frank interview on Rachel Maddow was AWESOME!!  I just wish he had directly advocated for the FIRING of AIG personnel!

I can't let this one go.  There is absolutly no reason that government can't be efficient, effective and with minimal waste.  It's all about proper structures and oversite.  The reason small business is considered efficient is that small businesses have a great deal of oversite: the owner or operator is typically managing operations directly, and is able to ensure her/his own requirements for efficiency. Proper structures, objective parameters and accounatbility of this type can be instituted on an enterprise scale and greater, if the will is there to ensure it happens.  Just because it's 'government' doesn't mean one shouldn't hold it and it's personnel to account.  Expect excellence from government, put people in place to make it happen, put people to the side who won't, and soon, it may actually happen!  There are plenty of people in government who actually do care about how money is spent.

As for money for the arts, that is subjective, not objective, and so doesn't seem to me to fit into a 'wastefull' catagory.

FWIW, I have been advocating raising the profile of Rush, for just these reasons.  However, I think this may not go far enough.  We should be exposing Hannity, Liddy (G. Gordon, not Dole),  Ingrahm, Coulter and the other hate mongers out there.  I think many (most?) don't realize the extent to which these folks really are out there in the far reaches of HateLand.

I got a 373.  Just sayin'.

I've been trying to figure this out for a while now.  It's like the DC media just can't wait for Obama to crash and burn, and if it take's their assistance, so be it.  I swear, every republican in DC has been on tv at least once! Even on NPR, for crying out loud! WHAT THE HELL!

Here's my question: does this in any way redeem the soon to be former president?  To me, this news is actually kind of big deal, as I totally expected him to play politics and pardon everyone (except maybe the blanket torture pardon because he really doesn't believe it was wrong).  Does he get a brownie point or not?

I would add that, as a result of corporate personhood, corporations have a huge amount of political influence.  I say take away their right to lobby congress and provide political contributions.  That would take away what, imho is the biggest problem with politics, and that is corporate influence.

Jan 20 can't come fast enough!  I can't wait to see his team in action!

"Hillary stands apart from other nominees, past or present.  Therefore, you can't expect that the process will be anything but extraordinary.  In such unusual circumstances, negotiations aren't necessarily a bad thing. It's naive to think it's about "stomaching" anything."

QFT!