http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2011/08/02/to-our-republican-sympathetic-readers/

To our Republican sympathetic readers

I know what they’ve been telling you. They’re telling you that if you can balance your household budget, the government should be able to balance one as well. This is simplistic and misleading. It doesn’t matter. You’ll believe it anyway.

They’re telling you that tax hikes kill jobs. Oh, really? How come they didn’t kill jobs in the 90′s when Clinton was president? And we’re not talking about all tax hikes, just the ones on the rich.

In fact, this has been said for years since Ronald Reagan. The rich have always said, “If you lower our taxes, we’ll create new jobs”. This is untrue and you know it’s untrue because so many of us are out of work and hurting and the rich are paying the lowest amount of taxes in generations. So, you know, this is bullshit. But you’ll believe it anyway.

<snip>

I've noticed that Madame Secretary is very quiet lately.  Perhaps in his brilliance, President Obama has realized how fruitless a reelection campaign is.  Perhaps he's asked Hillary to fill-in for him the next 4 years.

Today at 4, she is meeting with Colin Powell in her office at State.  Why? wonders the rodent.

http://secretaryclinton.wordpress.com/2011/08/04/thursday-august-4th-201...

SECRETARY HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON

9:15 a.m. Secretary Clinton meets with the assistant secretaries of the regional bureaus, at the Department of State.

12:30 p.m. Secretary Clinton attends a meeting at the White House.

2:45 p.m. Secretary Clinton holds a bilateral meeting with Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, at the Department of State.

4:00 p.m. Secretary Clinton meets with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, at the Department of State.
 

Listening to that bastion of liberalism, NPR, on the way to work this morning I heard a repug mouthpiece make a funny.  No!  I do not agree with their talking points, I just thought this was hilarious.

He equated the government's handling of the debt ceiling crisis to a state lowering it's DUI rate by raising the blood alcohol limit.

I actually posted a coment on DailyKos just now.  The op was asking all these questions about maybe changing his registration to indi.  Seems tonights latest cave has the progressives on edge.

What I had to say.

I had my answer in June of 2008

Switched my registration to Independent,

Today I wish I didn't have to say it but to all those with closed ears... we told you Obama has no ideals. We told you Obama had no plans. We told you he has no spine. We told you he was a Republican in sheep's clothing. We told you that he had actually never done a damned thing other than make great speeches and get elected. And we told you often that he had never crossed the isle or knew how to truly work together.

This country needs a leader not a yes man.

I am registered Indi yet feel I am one of the true Democrats left. I will do every thing in my power to bring Democrats with balls(figurative) into power. The Democratic Ideal is right, its the Democrats who are wrong.

Tonight is just another example of what happens when a man with no guts defers to congress for all legislation having never wanting his name listed as the author for oh my, some voters may not like him.

Yes folks. You got what you paid for.
 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/31/1001387/-I-should-be-asleep,-bu...

USA Today once more brings the issue to light.  The issue most Americans ignore by closing their eyes and closing their wallets.

More than 10,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are homeless or in programs aimed at keeping them off the streets, a number that has doubled three times since 2006, according to figures released by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

I help our local shelter, not nearly enough, and it would not kill anyone to locate a vets shelter and take some food or clothing.  Most of the shelters are in dire straights as we Americans tend to send our money to tsunami and flood victims rather than to the men and women who gave their souls for our country.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2011-07-25-homeless-veterans_n.htm

Just not today because I'm enjoying a 3 day weekend with my family.

Yes, I mean this place.

I check in most days to make sure nobody has bombed the joint, but I rarely stay around anymore and I find it difficult to comment on most of the posts.  I honestly hate what my own home has become.

I truly love the few people here but why do we think there are so few compared with a year ago?  I think my old HillFighter masslib put it best sometime ago.  It may have been during a chat session because I can't find it but the gist of what she said was,  "You people are crazy". 

Now I dearly miss masslib.  She came to NH during the last week of the primary and helped Hillary pull off a surprise win.  I met her in person and hugged her at the Salem office while I was picking up some NYC volunteers and their totem pole signs, I delivered them to a busy intersection in Londonderry. 

Masslib, rentarainbow, Pacific John, Izarradar, Cal, Catfish, ProudMilitarymom, KenoshaMarge, Banshee, madamab, LSekhmet, lizpolaris, TeakWoodKite, Tellurian.  The list goes on and on.  Old friends from as far back as DemocraticUnderground, DailyKos, Alegre's Corner and even NoQuarter.  Old friends that stopped by for a bit and then for their own reasons left.  Many are still liberal dems and many are/were middle of the road Hillary folks.  Some I know for fact left because of me and the tactless things I said or did.

I knew that action here would lessen over the years following the emotional 2008 campaigns.  That was to be expected as we have no central focus other than a disdain for Obama.  The focus of Partizane has been to not be focused, to be a place for all, therefore a home to none.  I've tried to focus us on Women, yet even I have failed to keep that going.  I, by my own rules, have tried to bring together opposing views for civil discussion.  That worked to a point. But if nobody reads us, if nobody cares, have we succeeded?

Worst of all, I hate to have my name, Newhampster (Don Schwartz), associated with some of the garbage that is being posted here. I am embarrassed to think that someone searching for NewHampster might come here first and think I stand with the insanity written here.

I am a LIBERAL or in the modern sense a CONSERVATIVE.  I believe that our country, our society, was and is meant for the good of all.  We are a tribe that came together in the wilderness.  We came together for the protection of numbers.  We only survive when the weakest among us know the strongest have their back.  We survive as a people because my helpless 93 year old veteran dad will never be put out on the street to fend for himself.

Things are about to change for Partizane. 

I've tried to make it "our site" but as Cal told me once, it is ultimately my site and i am the one who has to take responsibility for it's direction.

This is my site.  i could do like Uppity and threaten to shutdown or I can just say, Fuck it, the experiment failed and it's time to move on.

• First off I plan to find a lower cost hosting option and move the site, which will mean some downtime during the coming month.
• Secondly, I will be attempting to focus the entire site on my core values.  Please don't confuse that with Democratic values. 
• Third.  Front page posting will once more be restricted to what I deem worthy.
• Fourth.  In order to accomplish number 3 some administrative rights are being rescinded.
• Fifth.  I hope to find the time to redesign and possibly re-build the entire mess.
• Sixth. Sourcing of information from lying scum like Rupert Murdock and his henchmen will no longer be tolerated.  I seriously plan to remove any future posts which use known right wing mouth pieces for reference.

I realize that one very old friend in particular thinks I'm mad only at her.  I also realize that much like some of those old friends, I may lose you and your prolific posting because of what I'm saying and doing today.  I want you to know that I love you, welcome you and hope you will look in the mirror for a bit before thinking of saying goodbye.  Please consider staying around to engage me in civil discourse over intelligent stories and ideas.

My apologies to any I've offended.  Please know that this has been gnawing at me for months and rather than lose more sleep I've decided to do what I think is right.  I would be much happier shutting down the site, saving cash too, than to let Partizane go down the path it has been on for the last year or more.

Later my friends.  nh

Last week, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said that 51% of American households did not pay federal income taxes in 2009 and that 30% of American households in 2009 actually made money from the tax system by way of refundable tax credits.

We have been led to believe that everyone pays their fair share. If that isn't true, I for one want to know why the beleaguered middle class in this country is doing the heavy lifting while the rich and the rest of the socially entitled in this country always seem to have things working in their favor.

Oh, by the way, just so we get this straight. Americans were led to believe that if they paid into Social Security they would have money on which to retire. Social Security is not and has never been an "entitlement". It is a "contract" between the US Government and the millions of working Americans, who took it at its word.

Instead of safeguarding the money that working Americans invested in Social Security, our elected leaders on both sides of the aisle made a conscious decision to ignore the federal government's  promise to working Americans. Worse yet, they raided the fund to ensure their special interest groups could be appeased at tax time.

The middle class is being squeezed, because the Republicans and the Progressives have their special groups at opposite ends of the economic spectrum. In order to appease those groups, they are becoming increasingly deaf to those of us in the middle. We need to stop the insanity.

PolitiFact.com likes to fact check politicians. Since it won a Pulitzer in 2009 for its efforts, it’s worth a read to find out if Cornyn was telling the truth. Did 51% of Americans not pay Federal Income Tax in 2009?

Yup!  Right here in the "People's Republic of Vermont" in the year of our continuous sexism 2011

Click here to let the members of the Barre Development Review Board know that there is no place for sexism or discrimination in their decision-making process.

Article published Jul 11, 2011
Barre midwife’s home clinic nixed; mayor’s parking lot OK’d
By David Delcore
Staff Writer

BARRE — Somewhere in Haiti, a local midwife is steaming now that the Development Review Board unanimously denied her request to operate an office in her Colby Street home because, among other things, her neighbors are concerned that pregnant women aren’t well-equipped to back up on their steep road.

Contacted by cellphone Friday, Katherine Bramhall, who said she met last week with the minister of health in Haiti to discuss maternal mortality and the potential for opening birthing clinics there, was livid. She learned of Thursday’s decision by text message and said she will appeal.

“It was crap, actually,” she said. “It was a stacked jury.”

In the beginning of July, many of us were surprised to learn that a Nigerian was able to fly across country from JFK to LA without a valid passport or ID but with a boarding pass that belonged to someone else.  If you don’t remember that story, follow this link: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/nigerian_man_flies_from_jfk_expired_46mpsIlNpHXod9t0Hzm4JO?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME= 

You might find it interesting that when the 24-year-old Nigerian was arrested in LA, he was getting ready to board another plane going to Atlanta, using another expired boarding pass belonging to someone else.  Oh, one more thing, the Nigerian was also caught with other expired boarding passes. (Imagine that.) You can read that story here: http://www.nigerianworkers.com/2011/06/olajide-oluwaseun-arrested-at-los-angeles-international-airport/ 

But I digress.... This last Friday, there was a passenger with a valid boarding pass on a US flight, who hadn’t purchased a ticket. It is a disturbing story, because this guy had a bad attitude and was spitting on people.

Have you noticed that we have been reading way too many stories about passengers with bad attitudes getting on airplanes at our airports?

Ten years ago, a movie entitled Not without My Daughter was released. The movie was based on a book with the same title, written by Betty Mahmoody. She had married an Iranian immigrant (Moody) in the USA and they had a daughter (Mahtob), and eventually the family travelled to Iran in 1984 to visit his family.   It’s with that visit that life changed for the American woman.

In case you have forgotten it, I’ll let Wikipedia give you the rest of the plot:  "…Moody gradually reveals to Betty that he wants to remain in Iran, thinking that it would be a better place for the family, in accordance with Iranian Islamic principles…. Over time, Moody becomes increasingly unstable and violent.... Betty subsequently discovers that if Moody divorced her, under the Muslim laws of Iran, he would get sole custody of Mahtob…. Betty takes Mahtob and they flee together, back to America with the aid of people-smugglers."

Our media rushed to call the movie racist and anti-Muslim. Even Roger Ebert said the film made "moral and racial assertions that are deeply troubling" and that it "does not play fair with its Muslim characters.”  Still American Betty Mahmoody stuck to her story, because she claimed she was telling the truth, even though the media vilified her for it.

Funny thing is that since 1991, there has been more than one story of the Middle East swallowing up Western children and keeping them from their mothers.

A not funny at all thing is yesterday's story in the Daily Mail, about eleven-year-old Adam Jones. (That’s Adam with his mother in the photo to the right.)

Adam Jones is begging the UK to be reunited with his mother Rebecca, who by the way converted to Islam and raises him as a Muslim. Adam and his mother say he is being held hostage by his father’s family in Qatar, despite the fact that he is a native-born British citizen.

Former First lady Betty Ford dies at 93

 

By CONNIE CASS - Associated Press,LINDA DEUTSCH - Associated Press | AP – 2 hrs 38 mins ago..
.
.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Betty Ford said things that first ladies just don't say, even today. And 1970s America loved her for it.

 

According to Mrs. Ford, her young adult children probably had smoked marijuana — and if she were their age, she'd try it, too. She told "60 Minutes" she wouldn't be surprised to learn that her youngest, 18-year-old Susan, was in a sexual relationship (an embarrassed Susan issued a denial).

 

She mused that living together before marriage might be wise, thought women should be drafted into the military if men were, and spoke up unapologetically for abortion rights, taking a position contrary to the president's. "Having babies is a blessing, not a duty," Mrs. Ford said.

 

The former first lady, whose triumph over drug and alcohol addiction became a beacon of hope for addicts and the inspiration for her Betty Ford Center in California, died at age 93, family friend Marty Allen said.

 

Family spokeswoman Barbara Lewandrowski said Betty Ford died Friday at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. Other details of her death were not immediately available.

 

ShareThis

The Republic of South Sudan became the world's newest nation today (July 9, 2011), when South Sudan officially declared its independence at 12:01 AM (East Africa Time). 

After more than five decades of conflict between the Southern rebels and the Arab North’s successive Islamic Fascist governments that caused the deaths of more than 2 million people, the Southern Sudanese are finally a free people.

It is part of world history that the 2005 comprehensive peace agreement (CPA) that finally ended the Sudanese conflict was signed under intense pressure from foreign countries, especially the United States, Britain and Norway. (Americans should be proud of our country's involvement in that history, particularly today.)

The CPA cleared the way for a vote on the South’s independence, which actually occurred in January of this year. In that referendum, the South Sudanese opted for their independence from the North's Islamic Fascist regime. 99% of the Southern Sudanese voted for independence, because they rightfully equate the North’s sharia law with slavery. Today their vote became reality

The crazies, who make up al-Qaeda and wage Jihad on the civilized world, may have a new weapon in their sociopathic arsenal. The bomb is said to be the brainchild of Ibrahim al-Asiri, the 28 year old Saudi bomb maker. (Remember him?)

Ibrahim al-Asiri works in Yemen with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. His photo is posted here.

Last year, his name was attached to a story about two bombs placed in UPS and FedEx packages sent from Yemen to two Chicago synagogues. US authorities claimed al-Asiri really wanted to take down the two planes carrying the packages.

Before that failed attempt to blowup innocent Americans, al-Asiri was suspected of being involved with the 2009 Christmas Day “underwear bomber”. (Investigators suspicions were raised when one of al-Asiri’s fingerprints was found on that bomb.)

Even before the underwear bomber, al-Asiri had already proved he was a sicko. He is especially remembered by the Saudis for packing explosives into the rectum of his 23-year-old brother Abdullah for a suicide mission that targeted the head of Saudi intelligence. The bomb exploded prematurely, and Abdullah was the only casualty.

This month, Ibrahim al-Asiri has been tied to reports that al-Qaeda is preparing belly bombs specially designed to be surgically implanted in the bellies of jihadists before they board airplanes bound for the West.