kpete
kpete's JournalChristine Whitman former NJ Gov: "It's Hard For Me To Phrase This Politely: Sometimes Republicans...
Whitman said Huckabee’s remark, as well as Tuesday's scheduled vote on anti-abortion legislation, reaffirms what people see as the party's "condescending attitude toward women."
"It's hard for me to phrase this politely: Sometimes Republicans think that just putting a woman up front means somehow that women are going to feel good about the party," Whitman said. "It is not about the messenger. It's about the message. And until we figure that one out -- while it's nice that we have a woman as a spokesperson -- if the message itself doesn't get changed a bit, it's not going to work."
http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-q-and-a-christine-whitman-20140128,0,2106131.story#ixzz2rkJX6OUb
Do not read this if you’re prone to motion sickness or get queasy at the smell of poop.
READ: Excerpts From GOP's State Of The Union Response
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“Because our mission – not only as Republicans, but as Americans, is to once again to ensure that we are not bound by where we come from, but empowered by what we can become. That is the gap Republicans are working to close. It’s the gap we all face: between where you are and where you want to be.”
“Last month, more Americans stopped looking for a job than found one. Too many people are falling further and further behind because, right now, the President’s policies are making people’s lives harder. Republicans have plans to close the gap…Plans that focus on jobs first without more spending, government bailouts, and red tape…Every day, we’re working to expand our economy, one manufacturing job, nursing degree and small business at a time. We have plans to improve our education and training systems so you have the choice to determine where your kids go to school…to help you take home more of your paycheck...with lower taxes, cheaper energy costs, and affordable health care.”
“We’ve all talked to too many people who have received cancellation notices they didn’t expect or who can no longer see the doctors they always have. No, we shouldn’t go back to the way things were, but the President’s health care law is not working. Republicans believe health care choices should be yours, not the government’s. And that whether you’re a boy with Down syndrome or a woman with breast cancer, you can find coverage and a doctor who will treat you.”
“As Republicans, we advance these plans every day because we believe in a government that trusts people and doesn’t limit where you finish because of where you started. That is what we stand for – for an America that is every bit as compassionate as it is exceptional…Our plan is one that dreams big for everyone and turns its back on no one.”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gop-sotu-response-excerpts-cathy-mcmorris-rodgers
The Problem With "The Insane Party": Once you’ve gone over that edge, there’s not much leverage left
They’ve already shut down the government, forced cuts to food stamps and denied long-term unemployment benefits. Short of impeachment, what else is there? That’s the problem with becoming the insane party. Once you’ve gone over that edge, there’s not much leverage left. A President’s calculus quickly becomes to ignore Congress completely and do whatever is possible through executive order. Nothing else is left.http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/or-hell-do-what-by-davidoatkins.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
“No policy in place to check the waiting room to see if people waiting to be seen are still alive"
The emergency room worker was on duty at the time. He believes the 30 year-old Verrier may have been dead for several hours before being discovered by a security guard.
"There's no policy in place to check the waiting room to see if people waiting to be seen are still there or still alive," said the ER worker.
John Verrier had struggled with drug addiction and had been to St Barnabas before but his family says he had been clean for months and living at home. He had gone to the ER complaining about a rash, his vitals were checked and he was told to wait until his name was called. It was 10 at night. A security guard found him at 6:40 A-M, dead in a waiting room chair:
"No one should sit in the waiting room that long. I'm sorry, name calling over the loud speaker proves nothing, nothing," said Susan Verrier, the John's mother.
MORE:
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/investigators&id=9406237
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2014/01/28/stuck-in-the-emergency-room-you-may-be-sitting-next-to-a-dead-man/
Wendy Davis’s daughters defend her in letters
The letters from Amber and Dru Davis are posted below, unedited and in their entirety.
My name is Dru Davis and I am Wendy Davis's daughter. I hate that I feel the need to write this, but I have been reading and hearing so many untrue things about my mom and I want to set the record straight. And sadly I feel the need to be crystal clear on the malicious and false charge of abandonment as nothing could be further from the truth. My mom has always shared equally in the care and custody of my sister and me.
My mom had my sister at 19 and although she was technically married for a short period of time, she was handling almost everything on her own. She was working 2 jobs regularly and going to school. She met my dad when Amber was still very young. They had an amazing love that I witnessed for many years. Unfortunately, it didn't last, like so many love stories don't.
I can tell you that my mom was a remarkable mother and continues to be so to this day. She was there on my first day of school and my last, and so many days in between. She never missed a school performance or a parent-teacher conference. Even if that meant she had to miss something else important. My sister and I were always her first priority. She was there when I needed her and even when I thought I didn't. My mom was my Brownie Troop leader. I still remember camping out in the backyard with my troop after our trip was cancelled because of bad weather. She was also my field hockey team mom during my senior year of high school, not to mention that she went with me to every single field hockey camp, tryout, program that I ever had. She helped me sort through college possibilities, helped me with my applications and visited colleges with me.
I will never forget our drive to Colorado when she was dropping me off as a freshman at Colorado College. I cried the entire way. I am surprised she made it through that one. And after we got there, she stayed for days making sure every detail of my room was perfect until I finally had to tell her to leave.
My mom has been my sounding board for everything in my life, from resumes and papers to helping me with relationships. She was and is an amazing mother and has been the greatest role model I could imagine. Whatever happened, whatever difficult things she and my dad went through, she was always there. And I knew I was loved by her, regardless.
Yes, she went to law school after my sister and I were born. We lived with her the first semester, but I had severe asthma and the weather there wasn't good for me. My parents made a decision for my sister and me to stay in Texas while my mom kept going to school. But that doesn't mean she wasn't there for us. She traveled back and forth all the time, missing so many classes so that she could be with us. Her friends were such a big help. Especially her third year, when she would only go to school two weeks out of the month and her friends would share class notes so she could try to keep up while she was home with us in Fort Worth.
I love that my mom went to law school and was dedicated to both her work and us. Watching her work so hard to achieve something great has been one of the most important lessons in my life. To this day, I watch my mom greeted and hugged by people who love her and are thankful for things she has done for them. I am proud of her for that. Both of my parents made sacrifices to make education happen for all of us, my sister and me included. And both of them have been great role models for what it means to care about people in the world.
My name is Amber Davis and I am Wendy Davis’ oldest daughter. I have spent the past few days reading the ludicrous comments that people have shared on social media about my mother and our family. It is a shame that those who don’t know us feel the need to comment on the details of our lives as if they've lived them. I have a hard time understanding how such hate and negativity can result from one person’s false accusations.
My mother had me when she was very young, a kid herself. And although she was married for a short period of time, parenthood was her sole responsibility. Yes, we lived in a trailer. Does it matter how long? Not to me. Even though some people have tried to question my own memories; I do remember the trailer, as well as the apartments that we lived in during the years that followed. I know that I was my mother’s first priority and that she wanted a better life for me than the one she was living. She worked 2 jobs and went to community college at night. She refused to repeat the life her family struggled in growing up.
When I was a toddler, she met my step-dad, Jeff. They shared an immediate connection and I started to realize what it was like to have a real family. They married shortly before I turned five. Not long after they married they had my sister, Dru, the biggest baby I have ever seen. My parents had an amazing marriage for many years. They challenged each other and pushed each other to want more out of life.
After graduating at the top of her class at TCU, she went on to Harvard law school. Dru and I lived with her the first semester but our parents soon realized that it would be better if we stayed in our childhood home in Texas, be around extended family and attend our regular schools. This was a decision made by both parents. I have recently heard the phrase "abandoned" quite often in the past week. That our mother "left us to be raised by our father" while she went on to pursue her education. Not only is this ridiculously unfair; it's completely untrue. Dru and I have always been her number one priority. Always. And every decision our parents made was with our best interests at heart. We had an amazing support system while she was at Harvard and she was constantly traveling back and forth from school to be with us. I’m proud that my parents were able to make this arrangement work. People should be less concerned about who paid for what and pay more attention to the fact that she was accepted to Harvard law school, a dream she believed was unachievable.
People have come to know Wendy Davis the politician. But I want people to relate to Wendy Davis, my mother. I have a bond with my mother that is unlike any other. Even as a 31 year old adult, I will forever be referred to as her “Punky Brewster.” She is my best friend - the one I can confide in without judgment. I look up to her and rely on her for guidance and support, even to this very day. She is my rock and has always been a role model in my life.
My mother has achieved so much despite the odds. Her strength and desire to further her career is an inspiration and a quality I admire most about her. She has always had my full support and I am so proud of her accomplishments. She is a remarkable mother. I don't think she gives herself enough credit sometimes.
Our family has gone through difficult times just like many others. That’s not news. That's life. I'm sure many people can agree that divorce is certainly not an easy thing to experience. At that time, I was a young adult in college and Dru was in high school and to be clear, no one “lost or gave up custody” of either one of us. But no matter how difficult it was, both of our parents were there for us. And no matter what happened within our family, our mother always made it known that we were and remain the most important thing in her life.
FULL LETTERS HERE:
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/politics/Davis-Daughters-Share-Open-Letters-Refute-Claims-242445451.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/files/2014/01/Dru-Amber-Open-Letter.pdf
More Here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2014/01/28/wendy-daviss-daughters-defend-her-in-letters/
Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.
Being PoorSeptember 3, 2005
John Scalzi
Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.
Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.
Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they’re what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there’s not an $800 car in America that’s worth a damn.
Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.
Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends’ houses but never has friends over to yours.
Being poor is going to the restroom before you get in the school lunch line so your friends will be ahead of you and won’t hear you say “I get free lunch” when you get to the cashier.
Being poor is living next to the freeway.
Being poor is coming back to the car with your children in the back seat, clutching that box of Raisin Bran you just bought and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last.
Being poor is wondering if your well-off sibling is lying when he says he doesn’t mind when you ask for help.
Being poor is off-brand toys.
Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house.
Being poor is knowing you can’t leave $5 on the coffee table when your friends are around.
Being poor is hoping your kids don’t have a growth spurt.
Being poor is stealing meat from the store, frying it up before your mom gets home and then telling her she doesn’t have make dinner tonight because you’re not hungry anyway.
Being poor is Goodwill underwear.
Being poor is not enough space for everyone who lives with you.
Being poor is feeling the glued soles tear off your supermarket shoes when you run around the playground.
Being poor is your kid’s school being the one with the 15-year-old textbooks and no air conditioning.
Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal.
Being poor is relying on people who don’t give a damn about you.
Being poor is an overnight shift under florescent lights.
Being poor is finding the letter your mom wrote to your dad, begging him for the child support.
Being poor is a bathtub you have to empty into the toilet.
Being poor is stopping the car to take a lamp from a stranger’s trash.
Being poor is making lunch for your kid when a cockroach skitters over the bread, and you looking over to see if your kid saw.
Being poor is believing a GED actually makes a goddamned difference.
Being poor is people angry at you just for walking around in the mall.
Being poor is not taking the job because you can’t find someone you trust to watch your kids.
Being poor is the police busting into the apartment right next to yours.
Being poor is not talking to that girl because she’ll probably just laugh at your clothes.
Being poor is hoping you’ll be invited for dinner.
Being poor is a sidewalk with lots of brown glass on it.
Being poor is people thinking they know something about you by the way you talk.
Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise.
Being poor is your kid’s teacher assuming you don’t have any books in your home.
Being poor is six dollars short on the utility bill and no way to close the gap.
Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor.
Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere.
Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually stupid.
Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually lazy.
Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap.
Being poor is never buying anything someone else hasn’t bought first.
Being poor is picking the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that’s two extra packages for every dollar.
Being poor is having to live with choices you didn’t know you made when you were 14 years old.
Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.
Being poor is knowing you’re being judged.
Being poor is a box of crayons and a $1 coloring book from a community center Santa.
Being poor is checking the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.
Being poor is deciding that it’s all right to base a relationship on shelter.
Being poor is knowing you really shouldn’t spend that buck on a Lotto ticket.
Being poor is hoping the register lady will spot you the dime.
Being poor is feeling helpless when your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won’t listen to you beg them against doing so.
Being poor is a cough that doesn’t go away.
Being poor is making sure you don’t spill on the couch, just in case you have to give it back before the lease is up.
Being poor is a $200 paycheck advance from a company that takes $250 when the paycheck comes in.
Being poor is four years of night classes for an Associates of Art degree.
Being poor is a lumpy futon bed.
Being poor is knowing where the shelter is.
Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.
Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.
Being poor is seeing how few options you have.
Being poor is running in place.
Being poor is people wondering why you didn’t leave.
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/
It's Time For The President To Take Back His Presidency --- By Charles P. Pierce
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He should take back, in every detail, the speech that made him famous in Boston in 2004, because subsequent events have rendered it either naive or the most grotesque of fantasies. He should explain to this Congress, and to the country that visited that Congress upon him and upon itself, that, in doing so, it may well have dealt a blow to self-government from which self-government may not recover for a very long time. I hope he makes the point quite clearly that a party that cannot control Ted Cruz is so clearly demented as to never be trusted with any kind of power again. (I also hope he mentions neither the Keystone XL pipeline nor Guantanamo Bay, but I'm not shooting the moon here.) It is the affirmative obligation of the opposing party to point out -- constantly, and in vivid detail -- that the other party is walking around with a bird on its head. It is the affirmative obligation of the president -- who, after all, really has nothing more to lose -- to be the loudest voice doing so, and then to move on and govern the country, if nobody else wants the latter job.
He should pronounce himself ready to stand the gaff. If he really does begin signing executive orders and acting like a president, then the howls from the monkeyhouse opposition will be audible on Neptune. It long has been the obvious conclusion of those folks that this president was elected (twice) in order to be a largely ceremonial figure, and to embody the greatness of America in overcoming its original sins, but not actually to be president. My dear young man, that simply is...not...done. To them, his election (twice) to the presidency was merely yet another bipartisan "compromise" that demonstrates the beneficent genius of America, not a mandate for government, because don't be ridiculous, darlings. After all, remember the wise words of Millard Fillmore, president of the United States, the 13th of that title, who taught us that the genius of the American system occurs when both sides cut a deal of which nobody entirely approves, and that there is no problem so great that our political class cannot agree to kick it down the road a few years no matter how much misery that causes to the people who don't count for much, anyway. That, friends, is LEADERSHIP!
In my last annual message I stated that I considered the series of measures which had been adopted at the previous session in reference to the agitation growing out of the Territorial and slavery questions as a final settlement in principle and substance of the dangerous and exciting subjects which they embraced, and I recommended adherence to the adjustment established by those measures until time and experience should demonstrate the necessity of further legislation to guard against evasion or abuse. I was not induced to make this recommendation because I thought those measures perfect, for no human legislation can be perfect. Wide differences and jarring opinions can only be reconciled by yielding something on all sides, and this result had been reached after an angry conflict of many months, in which one part of the country was arrayed against another, and violent convulsion seemed to be imminent.
Imminent? Hell, it took 12 more years. Nice job, Millard. I mean, what do you people want, anyway?
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/state-of-the-union-012814
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Pete Seeger was a great American because he dared to be thought otherwise - By Charles P. Pierce
........... Seeger spent his life in the most honorable way possible -- he tried to teach America about itself. First, he helped teach it about itself through all the music it had forgotten, a darker and infinitely more fascinating place than the America that was selling itself Brylcreem on the TV, an America of murder ballads, and of the pain wrought in music of all its lost promises, and of the hope that the music itself could redeem those llost promises. There was a through line in the music from "Oh, I Had A Golden Thread" to "Ballad of a Thin Man," even though the story about Seeger's going after the cables with an ax when Dylan plugged in at Newport is arguably apocryphal, just as there was a through line in history line from the Dust Bowl to "We Shall Overcome," and it wound through some very interesting -- and some very scary -- places. Music is the way America always has talked to itself, even on those occasions on which it was whispering because what it was saying was dangerous to say out loud. Music is the way to say things in this country you might otherwise wish not to be overheard. That was the language Pete Seeger spoke, year after year, demonstration after demonstration, cause after cause, war after war, for most of his 94 years, and that was the language he spoke in 2008, when he shared a stage with Bruce Springsteen and insisted -- with Springsteen's full and enthusiastic approval -- that every verse of "This Land Is Your Land" be sung, including these:
As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
Then he tried to teach it by his example, by being a gentle presence in the issues of the day, from Civil Rights to Vietnam to nuclear power to environmentalism, to adventurism in Central America, to the Occupy movement, which, as he saw clearly, was an attempt to sing those forgotten verses to a new melody. And he did it with a smile. He loved the wide sky and the blue of the Hudson River. He loved the land and the water and the air. How could anything be more American than that? He loved the country and its people and the idea of it that outlasted so many attempts to hijack it for other purposes. Pete Seeger was a great American because he dared to be thought otherwise. That is the only real qualification. It gets more dear as the years go by.
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/pete-seeger-obit-012814?src=spr_TWITTER&spr_id=1456_41969175
What Voters Really Care About
a useful chart as we prepare for the State Of The Union
http://www.people-press.org/2014/01/27/deficit-reduction-declines-as-policy-priority/
Statement by the President on the Passing of Pete Seeger
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 28, 2014
Statement by the President on the Passing of Pete Seeger
Statement by the President on the Passing of Pete Seeger
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