Stellaa's Open Salon Blog

Spine, Are Some Democrats Getting a Spine?

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:11:48 -0500

So, now that we are not gonna dither and probably send thousands of troops into Afghanistan, lets talk about paying for it.

Well, it seems some Democrats are proposing, in the same way that we have to find the money for social programs, that if we want to continue and or escalate the war, we should find the money to pay for war.

Since it seems that the National Press and our Republicans discovered the National Deficit--something that did not seem to bother anyone when we went on our expedition in Iraq. I guess when they were voting for the wars and borrowing for the wars, while voting for tax cuts, deficits did not matter.

David Brooks laments the Healthcare Bill, he says it would hurt our vitality:

Reform would make us a more decent society, but also a less vibrant one. It would ease the anxiety of millions at the cost of future growth. It would heal a wound in the social fabric while piling another expensive and untouchable promise on top of the many such promises we’ve already made. America would be a less youthful, ragged and unforgiving nation, and a more middle-aged, civilized and sedate one.

Mr. Brooks, what of our vitality when our resources and energy is spent on war? That never came up in your columns before.

The Democrats, at least some, are saying, ok, since you are so eager, lets vote for a 1% surtax on anyone with income over $200,000.

Imagine if the Democrats pushed for that back when the Iraq war was first proposed. Oh, I forgot, the oil revenues were gonna pay for it and we were gonna be out of there in a jiffy, of course after they put up statues to Bush.

Who are the Democrats displaying vestiges of a spine :

Carl Levin, Michigan.

David Obey, Wisconsin.

"We have been fighting for a year to try to pass health care - it costs about 900 billion dollars - and we are being told that we have to pay for every dime of it," Obey said on "Washington Unplugged." "But if we adopt a plan that General McChrystal is talking about, we are also being told that we have to hunker down and be ready for a decade long or more commitment. If we do that the cost will also be about 900 billion dollars – the difference is that we are not being asked to pay for that. And we think that if we are being asked to pay for health care, we certainly should start paying for the war."

As long as we do not make the war hawks pay as they go, we will drain all our resources to fight wars that we should not be fighting. The escalation in Afghanistan is the continuation of a wrongheaded campaign. If you raise the issue of war cost, you get we must support our troops.

If this is what is being suggested, lets pass the tax. Since most of the war pain is on the backs of poor Americans, time for the rich to give a piece of their hide. I want to see some of the rich make the sacrifice that the people forced to enter the military as their only possible means of making a living.

Torture In Iran, Sound Familiar?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:11:36 -0500

Maziar Bahari, a Canadian based film maker and journalist, was arrested and tortured by the Revolutionary Guards of Iran. Bahari gave an interview to 60 Minutes and writes a compelling account of his ordeal in prison.

Watch the interview on 60 minutes and read his account in Newsweek, 118 Days, 12 Hours, 54 Minutes.

What struck me is how the supporters of torture in America have reduced many of our values to the lowest common denominator. The Iranians claim their torture is not violence, sound familiar? :

The problem with the shah's secret police, he said, was that they thought they could break a prisoner's will through physical pressure, but often that just hardened the victim's resolve. "What our brothers after the revolution have masterminded is how to break a man's soul without using much violence against his body." As I stepped into my cell I wondered how violent was "without much violence."

How many similar descriptions of torture did we hear? How many nuanced definitions of water boarding and other methods were used to justify similar methods?

By violating the Geneva Convention and all the other treaties that we signed, we adopted the harsh interrogating techniques that the Iranians use. The Bush administration and the right wing apologists, are from the same authoritarian and absolutist cloth.

We became our enemies. Here is Vice President Cheney, justifying harsh interrogating techniques:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said yesterday that the CIA's extreme interrogation techniques "were directly responsible for the fact that for eight years [after 9/11] we had no further mass casualty attacks against the United States." He described the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate alleged torture as a political move and a "terrible, terrible precedent." In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Cheney called the use of waterboarding and other coercive methods—like threatening detainees with guns or drills—key weapons in the war on terrorism. "I knew about the waterboarding, not specifically in any one particular case, but as a general policy that we had approved," added Cheney, who noted that neither a gun nor a drill had actually been used on detainees. There also have been reports of agents threatening detainees' relatives with rape.

Sunday Night Before Thanksgiving

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:11:57 -0500

Dear OS Comrades,

Welcome to OS, a little microcosm of America. I have been here since March of 2008. A group of folks was here before me, does not matter at this point.

I am here to not bash or bury OS, I am here to let you know how I feel about this little place:

I have learned a few things:

Some people write about their lives, loves or their politics.

Some people write about their cute babies ,

others how they hate the world and everyone in it.

Some people, spend hours beating each other up over some indiscretion.

Some people, write poetry.

Some people, tell us tall tales.

Some people tell us how we should think, behave and write.

Some people have problems that will not be solved by casual intervention.

Some people are hungry to be heard.

Some people tell us what to read.

I know one thing,

Enjoy the freedom OS gives you.

Enjoy being a pundit, critic ,or even a voyeur.

Enjoy, your this little bit of real estate you get to play with words and ideas.

OS will not save you, enlighten you, or cure your ills.

If you don't like my grammar, punctuation or politics, don't read me.

If it pisses you off that others read my stuff and like it? There is nothing I can say to you to make you feel better about the universe.

Think of this as the superhighway of troubadours.

We do whatever it is, some people throw pennies, others throw their rubbish at us.

Find a corner and just enjoy it.

Thanks to Joan and the OS people for letting us do this.

Who else is giving me this playground?

I don't see the Murdoch's or Foxes of the world giving this super luxury to their people. So, sorry right wingers, I get to be mean to you, cause my liberal friends are paying for this.

For Thanksgiving, I say thank you OS.

Senate Vote on Cloture For Health Bill

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:11:49 -0500

Sixty votes needed to move the healthcare bill forward. The debate finished.

We are at the M's. Is anyone watching?

"The vote to end a Republican filibuster on the motion to proceed, should it reach the 60-vote threshold, will double as the vote on the motion to proceed, allowing senators to head home for Thanksgiving recess following the 8 p.m. vote ... Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., had threatened to require the clerk to read the 2,000-page bill following the vote on the motion to proceed, but Reid will call up the bill by number only, which prevents a reading. 'I agreed to the wishes of my leadership,' Coburn said" (Edney and Friedman,

Yays, 60 Nays 39. Lieberman even voted Yay.

Via Wakingupslowly: Kaiser has a great summary of the process

So, do you think you are having a bad day?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:11:13 -0500

The couple was not at home. Why, the wife was in a car accident. Right here in Santa Rosa, a couple hires a crane company to remove and aged oak tree and they get the surprise of a lifetime.

Last year, Reliable Crane Company did a similar thing to a friend's house. I am posting it here so I will never forget and hire Reliable Crane Company.