Thank You!

The "In Honor of Mimi" drive is now over. Thanks to all of you who gave, and thanks especially to Holy Foolishness, whose idea it was, and to Fran, who publicized the effort. The donations are much needed and will be put to good use. Again, thank you.

McCain - A Miserable 20 Out Of 100 Rating

The Disabled American Veterans organization rates the members of Congress according to their votes to support veterans with disabilities:

Formed in 1920 and chartered by Congress in 1932, the million-member DAV is the official voice of America's service-connected disabled veterans -- a strong, insistent voice that represents all of America's 2.1 million disabled veterans, their families and survivors.

The votes listed under the Key Votes section of the DAV web site are recorded roll call votes. They are related to important issues, such as:

* Budget
* Appropriations
* Amendments to increase funding
* Emergency supplemental funding for VA

In most cases, with recorded votes, we have notified members of Congress of what our position is, how we wanted them to vote, and why.

The group rates McCain at a miserable 20 out of 100 in his votes in support of disabled veterans. Obama scores 80 out of 100.

For all the blah, blah, blah about patriotism, McCain doesn't put the money we give him where his mouth is.

H/T to Lapin.

UPDATE: From the comments:

Lapinbizarre said...

Checking the full list I see that McCain is one of only TWO members of Congress (both houses) to bottom out with a 20% D.A.V. rating.

The other is Larry Craig.

Ha! Good to see that McCain keeps the right company.

McCain Says Conserve Energy

From last night. Thanks to Doug.

Big Dog Campaigns For Obama Biden

Good enough, Big Dog. That will do very nicely. We all need to know the reality of John McCain's truly awful judgment. What sort of decisions and judgments will emanate from the White House if he is elected? Whom will he choose for the Supreme Court?

Bill Clinton is a great campaigner. I'm glad he's on our side, sorta. He does not seem to have arrived at the point of being able to actually praise Obama, but perhaps that will come. For now, highlighting Biden's capabilities vis-à-vis Palin's lack thereof is an excellent start.

From TPMtv.

New Dollar Bill

From a friend in Texas.

It's Hard, Really Hard

Other Parts Of The Middle East

From Politico. It's short.

Ray Puts It All In Perspective

Read Ray in New Orleans on the sad plight of the trader folks who inhabit Greenwich, Connecticut, who may no longer be able to send their children to private schools and give huge amounts to charity. Ned Lamott (Remember him? The Dems ran him against Liebermann.) says, "This is our Katrina...."

Ray says:

If this was really your Katrina, I would feel for you, man. Because you would be facing such total destruction and demoralization, and you would have to face it without being able to take solace in brass bands or real food or Mardi Gras, because when all is said and done, you still live in a shithole called Connecticut.

To my readers from Connecticut: The views expressed are not necessarily those of the blog owner. After all, Paul Newman lived there. I report; you decide.

H/T to Oyster at First Draft.

Woman/Man - Prayer Poems

A WOMAN'S POEM:

Before I lay me down to sleep,

I pray for a man, who's not a creep,

One who's handsome, smart and strong.

One who loves to listen long,

One who thinks before he speaks,

One who'll call, not wait for weeks.

I pray he's gainfully employed,

When I spend his cash, won't be annoyed.

Pulls out my chair and opens my door.

Massages my back and begs to do more.

Oh! Send me a man who'll make love to my mind,

Knows what to answer to "How big is my behind?"

I pray that this man will love me to no end,

And always be my very best friend.


A MAN'S POEM:

I pray for a deaf-mute gymnast nymphomaniac with huge boobs who owns a bar on a golf course, and loves to send me fishing and drinking. This doesn't rhyme, and I don't give a shit.


From my daughter. I'd been about to chide her for falling down on her job of supplying me with material, but she's back at work.

A Mighty Rant By Athenae

From A. at First Draft on the theme that the economic troubles we are seeing today did not start yesterday, or two weeks ago, or even two years ago, and where has everyone been all this time that we did not pay attention and get to work on a fix? Exactly. Read the whole post.

Because I'm sorry, but we have seen this before. We have seen world event after world event after domestic horror after domestic horror offer the party the opportunity to stand up and say, "Not this time. Just this far, and no farther, and it stops right now." We saw it in 2004 with Kerry and we saw it in 2005 with Katrina and we saw it in 2006 with the new majority and we saw it this year with FISA, the turning point at which no one turned. The place to make a stand, at which everyone remained sitting right where they were. I mean, I'm sorry, I know he's a wacky little elf and all, but Dennis Kucinich has been screaming this shit since 2003, when I first became aware of him:

Yet the most impassioned applause of the day was reserved for Kucinich. Introduced by Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers of America, as "the only vegan in Congress," Kucinich took the stage to John Lennon's "Imagine" and proceeded to conjure the heyday of American progressivism by promising a new version of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration. "We're gonna rebuild America's cities, and we're gonna do it with America's steel," he roared, his voice far larger than his elfin frame. In his spellbinding speech, Kucinich laid out a lefty's dream platform: Medicare for all, money pulled out of the Pentagon budget to pay for schools and other domestic programs, and "total nuclear disarmament." He spoke to the crowd's fury over the war in Iraq, getting a screaming standing ovation when he cried, "This war was wrong! This war was fraudulent! We must expose this administration!"

Kucinich's words from 2003 apply quite well today. His dream for America is my dream for America. I believe that I became aware of Kucinich in the run-up to the Iraq War, speaking in the House of Representatives with his strong voice against the war and predicting what a disaster it would be, and he's been my favorite member of the House since then. He was my first choice as Democratic candidate for president. As Athenae says, "...he's a wacky little elf," but I love him. And where do we go from here with this mess?

Here's what Kucinich said on the floor of the House Sunday:

The $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, is driven by fear not fact. This is too much money in too a short a time going to too few people while too many questions remain unanswered. Why aren't we having hearings on the plan we have just received?

Why aren't we questioning the underlying premise of the need for a bailout with taxpayers' money? Why have we not considered any alternatives other than to give $700 billion to Wall Street? Why aren't we asking Wall Street to clean up its own mess? Why aren't we passing new laws to stop the speculation, which triggered this? Why aren't we putting up new regulatory structures to protect investors? How do we even value the $700 billion in toxic assets?

Why aren't we helping homeowners directly with their debt burden? Why aren't we helping American families faced with bankruptcy. Why aren't we reducing debt for Main Street instead of Wall Street? Isn't it time for fundamental change in our debt based monetary system, so we can free ourselves from the manipulation of the Federal Reserve and the banks? Is this the United States Congress or the board of directors of Goldman Sachs? Wall Street is a place of bears and bulls. It is not smart to force taxpayers to dance with bears or to follow closely behind the bulls.

I hear ya, Dennis.

I'm no expert on the economy, and I don't know how we are to dig ourselves out of the deep economic hole in which we "suddenly" find ourselves, but what Kucinich says makes sense to me.