Big Dan's Big News March 2, 2010

Update Special Commentary: "I think I figured out exactly what the Republicans are doing. What are the odds that only ONE Republican is blocking the unemployment bill? AND he's going to retire after his term is up so he has no repercussions? I think the ENTIRE Republican Party is against unemployment benefits, just like Ronald Reagan who started taxing unemployment, but it is SO HORRENDOUS to the entire party to be perceived this way, they have a meeting behind the scenes and pick ONE Republican to block unemployment, one who is retiring, to block it and then this releases all the other Republicans to vote FOR it so the entire party doesn't look bad. They can even play games to look good like have other Republicans even chastise Bunning, which is exactly what they are doing. I'll bet if you examine the other bills they're holding up, you will detect a pattern where they take turns like this. Bunning was the pick for this one. And the overall end is Mission:Accomplised! The unemployment bill goes down only due to ONE Republican so the ENTIRE PARTY doesn't look so bad. We're all being played like a fiddle, folks! No ONE person is this crazy and stupid, I don't believe it. This was planned by the entire Republican Party, but Bunning was picked to be the fall guy or scapegoat. Don't worry, they'll take care of him for doing this. If you don't think the Republican Party leadership or whoever is running the GOP didn't plan this and pick Bunning as 'their guy' to do this, and Bunning is the only one acting independently on this, you're stupider than you look. Enjoy the media show, suckers, as the Republicans once again play everyone like a fiddle."

The ghost of Ronald Reagan lives on in Jim Bunning...

Ronald Reagan and the Republicans started taxing unemployment in 1983, the Republican War on Unemployment Benefits continues...Ronald Reagan had Alzheimer's while he was still president, was he even running the country? Who was running the country? George Bush's father? And the Republicans want your social security, too! George Bush already tried it! Did you notice that the (not) liberal media never brings that up during this financial crisis? Or does any stories: "what if George Bush privatized social security, what would've happened to it during the financial crisis?" Let's just forget about it! That George Bush wanted to privatize social security! Never happened! According to the (not) liberal media!

ROBBING PETER TO PAY PAUL: TAX ON UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

While the most crucial immediate task to help the jobless is to force Congress to act before Feb. 28, the unemployment comp system needs another fix: repealing the federal income tax on UC (unemployment compensation) income.

Adding insult to injury for jobless workers is the persistence of an outrageous but barely-remembered change enacted in 1983 during the last recession. At the federal level, Reagan and the Republicans came up with an inventively regressive rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul scheme to deal with the shortfall in federal funds: taxing UC benefits to help provide support the UC system.

Bunning missed the Kentucky-South Carolina basketball game to take a stand against unemployed Americans...

I wish I was joking, but this is true: K-Y Republican Senator Jim Bunning is holding up unemployment benefits for millions, the Republicans continue the war on the middle class. If you're not the 1% richest, you get the middle finger. Bunning says his reason is because "you won't pay for it". So, he never had a problem with the 2.5 BILLION a week we're spending on the Wars Bush started (and Obama is escalating) going on 9 years, no problem rushing through bombs to Israel whenever they need them, no problem with any other expenditures...until it's time to take a stand against unemployed Americans! But then he says, and again I wish I was joking, that his stand against unemployed Americans caused him to miss the Kentucky-South Carolina basketball game! His sacrifice was that he missed watching a basketball game! I'm beginning to think the Republicans are taking turns doing this as a plan. Anyone else agree? And it was just Bunning's "turn".

Bunning: "TOUGH SHIT!!!"

FLASHBACK: Bunning Enthusiastically Backed Extending Unemployment Benefits That Weren’t Paid For In 2003 when BUSH was president!!!

Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) has been blocking important legislation that would temporarily extend unemployment and health benefits to laid-off American workers; these benefits expired on Sunday because Congress failed to pass an extension. Because of Bunning, 2,000 federal highway employees were furloughed without pay as of yesterday, and doctors are facing a 21 percent cut in Medicare fees, and more than a million people in rural areas may not be able to watch television.

While Blocking UI Bill, Bunning Complains About Missing Basketball Game



Senate After Dark

The Senate needs to get Jim Bunning out of the room if it wants to pass a 30-day extension of unemployment benefits.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Senate After Dark
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

RALPH NADER: Well, it’s just the latest manifestation of the graveyard in Congress known as the US Senate. There are over 100 bills, many of them fairly good, that the House of Representatives have passed, including financial regulation, that are buried in the Senate. And the Senate rules allow one senator, like Senator Jim Bunning, who’s not running for reelection, so he doesn’t have to worry about adverse feedback from Kentucky, to block disbursements for unemployed people, unemployment compensation, and also opens the door to the banking lobby, which, as Senator Durbin of Illinois said a few weeks ago, run the place. That’s what his words. He said, “The banks run the place.”

Senate Republican Jim Bunning is continuing to filibuster a key spending bill to extend unemployment benefits for hundreds of thousands of American workers. The blocked bill also affects several governmental agencies, rural television customers and doctors receiving Medicare payments. At the same time, Senate Banking Committee Chair Christopher Dodd has abandoned an idea proposed by President Obama and favored by consumer groups to create an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency to protect consumers against abuses in mortgages, credit cards and other forms of lending. Meanwhile, General Motors announced today it is recalling 1.3 million compact cars in North America because of a power steering problem that has been linked to fourteen crashes. GM blamed the fault on a supplier partially owned by Toyota. We speak to longtime consumer advocate Ralph Nader.

Ralph Nader on the GOP Filibuster of Unemployment Benefits Bill, the Collapse of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Proposal, and the Latest Auto Recalls



I think now is a good time to re-post this video - Get rid of the Senate:

David Swanson of AfterDowningStreet.org (one of my favorite sites!): Abolish the Senate: The Filibuster Problem, The Death of the Subpoena, the Fear Since Kennedy Died

David Swanson at Harvard COOP bookstore on February 27, 2010, speaking about his book "Daybreak" and the need to reform and remove the U.S. Senate



No one friggin' understands Senate procedure



YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

By David Swanson

I've been writing about various states just beginning campaigns for single-payer healthcare. Pennsylvania is on the cusp of completing one.

They claim to have the best legislation, which will provide everyone with healthcare, pay for it, and in fact save people and businesses money, as well as getting around the federal restrictions Congressman Dennis Kucinich has attempted unsuccessfully thus far to waive for states. In Pennsylvania they have Democratic and Republican cosponsors. Imagine that in Washington, D.C.! And they have a governor ready to sign the bill into law.

Health Care for All Pennsylvania clearly has one of the best websites. Pennsylvania's campaign at http://healthcare4allpa.org/ , led by Chuck Pennacchio, makes a good model for other states to learn from and provides resources other states might do well to borrow or modify. This website is full of PDFs, power points, charts, and videos explaining the benefits of state-level single-payer healthcare, plus all kinds of references for further reading, and even a good list of links to similar campaigns in other states, including California, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, and Wisconsin.

Pennsylvania Likely to Get Healthcare Before Rest of U.S.

HealthCareForAllPa.org Legislation

HealthCareForAllPa.org County Savings Calculator

HealthCareForAllPa.org WEBSITE

PITTSBURGH:

"This is like the sledgehammer against the Berlin Wall," Ferlo says of his effort to create a statewide single-payer health-care plan. Such a measure would bypass insurance companies entirely, having a government agency reimburse doctors and hospitals for medical treatment. "But it's doable."

PITTSBURGH: State Sen. Jim Ferlo likens his quest for health-care reform to breaking a concrete wall with a five-pound sledgehammer: Hit the wall once, it shakes. Strike it 10 times, it cracks. Twenty times and it crumbles.

Colorado Could See Single-Payer Healthcare

Single-Payer Healthcare Coming to Missouri

SIGN UP for a Mass Citizen's Arrest of the Health Insurance Industry!!!

BD: The media was liberal at one time. It did hold the powerful accountable. What better plan was there than for the powerful to usurp the liberal media and keep calling it liberal? The reason they call it liberal is because it was liberal before they usurped it. So, it follows, that those who keep calling it liberal, like Rush Limbaugh, work for the powerful. Do you like his cigar? Did you know cigars are a symbol of the rich and powerful?

"It is known among political scientists that powerful forces always seek to gain control of pre-existing social and political institutions so they can usurp their powers."

Part V: Overcoming the Divide and Conquer Strategy — The Economic Elite Vs. The People of the USA (BD: the media isn't "liberal")

Previous in the series:

I: Casualties of Economic Terrorism, Surveying the Damage

II: The Rise of the Economic Elite

III: Exposing Our Enemy - Meet the Economic Elite

IV: The Financial Coup d’Etat

America's transformation into a fascist state is defined by obscene and growing inequalities of wealth and income, the rise of the Military/Industrial Complex, and the role of the CIA as 'enforcer' for the establishment. 'Terrorism' is but Bush's pretext to wage a series of oil wars that John McCain says may last '10,000 years'. A phony ' War on Terrorism' must be considered in context.

Ronald Reagan's infamous tax cut of 1982 is high upon a list of many milestones along the US path to fascism and dictatorship. It must be credited with having turned America into a banana republic, a nation of 'haves' and 'have nots'. This single act robbed millions of financial and class status but worse --the hope that they might rise above poverty, better their lot and finance the education of their children.

The wealthy have always used many methods to accumulate wealth, but it was not until the mid-1970s that these methods coalesced into a superbly organized, cohesive and efficient machine. After 1975, it became greater than the sum of its parts, a smooth flowing organization of advocacy groups, lobbyists, think tanks, conservative foundations, and PR firms that hurtled the richest 1 percent into the stratosphere.

The origins of this machine, interestingly enough, can be traced back to the CIA.

Steve Kangas: The Origins of the Overclass