Ted Kennedy

I loved Ted Kennedy. His speeches often brought me to tears. I've personally benefited from his work in the Senate through the legislation he pushed through and he was a real national leader.

But -- I find it interesting that the one event the talking heads keep pointing out as his biggest mistake in the Senate was his dressing down of Bork in 1987. The mainstream media keeps saying it was the tipping point for when supreme court judge conformations became politicized. My point of view is that it was Reagan's nomination of Bork that made it become politicized. Kennedy justifiably derailed that nomination. Reagan should have never nominated such a man so outside the mainstream.

I was very disappointed later in 1991 that Kennedy didn't challenge Clarence Thomas and we're stuck with this incompetent right winger because of it. At the time I blamed Kennedy's own perceived personal escapades with women that probably made him feel unable to appropriately question and point out Thomas' inappropriateness. I vividly remember Kennedy sitting there, not asking questions, looking circumspect. Women everywhere were disappointed and mad. It made many of us determined to make sure that more women would be in the Senate in the future. We realized we could not rely on the men to protect us.

My own Senators -- Cantwell and Murray -- have Kennedy to thank for making the rest of us so outraged that we insisted more women were elected.

I forgave Kennedy and I loved him but his actions concerning Bork wasn't his biggest failing -- his inaction on the Thomas hearing were.

h/t davidhorsey.com

Repercussions

Steve Brill (founder of CourtTV) used to publish a magazine called "Brill's Content". It was a pretty decent magazine but went bust in 2001. Each month the magazine published a running score of pundunt accuracy. The scores were dismal!

The smart and funny Bill in Portland Maine had a great post today on penalties. He listed off common penalties for sports, traffic citations, fines, etc. He then cited this penalty:

Neocon Republicanism: Lying about and/or being completely wrong and/or incompetent and/or deceitful about WMDs, torture, terror threats and civil liberties between 2001 and 2009 = Book deals, TV appearances, regular guest columns in major newspapers and magazines, huge speaking fees, credibility and authority inside the D.C. beltway, invitations to cocktail parties, lobbying power, Twitter/Facebook stardom, and serving as "balance" on talk shows against those who didn’t lie and were completely right and competent and candid about WMDs, torture, terror threats and civil liberties between 2001 and 2009.

How true!!

Everyone Supports Single Payer!!

Despite the propaganda spin from the Republithugs, single payer has broad support from many, many organizations. Apple Eating Notes assembled an impressive list of supporters for single payer. I know you'll recognize how broad and extensive the support is. Funny thing though, no insurance companies. Huh?!

Most Extensive Analysis I've Seen of Carly Fiorina

I'm really nervous about Carly Fiorina being pushed forward as the Republithugs "best candidate" in 2012. The bat-shit crazies will eventually be marginalized. But the more pragmatic of the party, in their search for grabbing the White House back will search for their perfect candidate. I predict that Carly Fiorina will rear her ugly head. She's good looking (the Sara Palin factor), religious (the Huckabee appeal), and talks like she knows what's happening in the business world (the Romney card). She also has never held office so she doesn't have a pesky voting track record to justify or explain. She doesn't talk crazy but comes off as professional. She would be a disaster for this Country but a wet dream for the corporatist wing of the Republithug party.

Media Matters has done the best research I've seen on Carly Fiorina. Thankfully, someone else sees her as a threat. Go see their research and I suggest you save the link as a favorite because I predict you will need it in a couple years.

We must watch this woman and make sure the truth is out there about who she really is.

h/t to San Francisco Chronicle for pix

Obama is not a Nazi

AKMuckraker has a great, heartfelt, and effective post on these idiots throwing the word Nazi around at the townhlls. Go read the whole thing but meanwhile here's her summary:

I am tired of people comparing Obama to Hitler. I am tired of seeing signs with swastikas and nazi symbols at health care rallies. I am tired of people saying that a health care plan designed to uplift millions of Americans to give them dignity, and choice and the ability to care for their families, is like Naziism. I am tired of Rush Limbaugh.

As time passes, and as the greatest generation becomes a memory, passing into history one soul at a time, it is up to the generations that follow them to keep “Hitler” and “Nazi” out of the clutches of those who would make them political buzzwords for people they don’t like, or policies they don’t understand. Those words remind us of the worst that people can be. There is nothing horrible about Germans in particular that caused them to do these things. This is humanity’s dark potential, and something that we all need to remember, whether we were there or not, or whether our family was affected or not, because this is what people can do to each other. To strip those words of their power and meaning in order to create political fear for self-gain is inexcusable and needs to be confronted and refuted whenever it arises, by all of us, whether we support the current health care bill and the current president or not.

Isn't she smart?!

What a Way to Begin a Morning!

Gore and Big Dog Clinton saving 2 young women reporters sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in North Korea. What a fairy tale ending to what I'm sure was a nightmare for the women. And it was brought together by Al Gore!

Keith Olberman is a Genius

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Health Care

Family, friends, an old boss all have been sending me cut n' paste e-mails against reforming health care. They all have consistent themes like "LOOK ON PAGE 426!!!" or "ACORN!!" (when did a community group that tries to help the lowest rung of our society get shelter and back on their feet and participating in our society become the devil??) and "MANDATORY KILLING OUR ELDERLY" (and / or mandatory abortions and sex changes).

I'm getting angry -- unfortunately my friends and family are feeling the brunt of it because they are demonstrating how uninformed they are by passing this garbage around and also unfortunately the reply button is so handy and I can't restrain myself. But who I'm really angry at is the insurance companies starting all of this. Health care reform is too important to have to be distracted with these lies and garbage. We should be having good discussions and debates and instead the insurance companies are being very successful is distracting us with this crap.

h/t to Far Left