As Pretty As A Song: Archive

“Ted Kennedy often said his biggest political mistake was turning down a health care deal with Richard Nixon, and Kennedy’s old lament had Democrats yesterday thinking again about compromise on reform.

Kennedy said he turned down the universal health coverage plan offered by the Republican President in the early 1970s because it wasn’t everything he wanted it to be. He later realized it was a missed opportunity to make major progress toward his goal.

” —Health care reform was Sen. Ted Kennedy’s unfinished life’s work (via ericmortensen) (via mikehudack)

Aug 28, 2009

dalasverdugo: variation: mikehudack: spytap:

This article blew my mind, especially the part where it describes how a single particle spinning in space might not actually be said to be spinning at all. I felt like CJ right after they flipped the map.

Aug 28, 200935 notes

“Ted Kennedy often said his biggest political mistake was turning down a health care deal with Richard Nixon, and Kennedy’s old lament had Democrats yesterday thinking again about compromise on reform.

Kennedy said he turned down the universal health coverage plan offered by the Republican President in the early 1970s because it wasn’t everything he wanted it to be. He later realized it was a missed opportunity to make major progress toward his goal.

” —Health care reform was Sen. Ted Kennedy’s unfinished life’s work (via ericmortensen) (via mikehudack)

Aug 28, 2009

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Aug 27, 200927 notes

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Aug 27, 20097 notes

“One thing I would say so that there is no confusion out there is that this FCC will support net neutrality and will enforce any violation of net neutrality principles” —

TheHill.com - Obama’s FCC to enforce ‘net neutrality’

Right on Julius !

(via bijan)

Aug 27, 20091 note

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Aug 27, 200913 notes

“For me this is a season of hope — new hope for a justice and fair prosperity for the many, and not just for the few — new hope.

And this is the cause of my life — new hope that we will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American — north, south, east, west, young, old — will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege.” —

TED KENNEDY, speaking at the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 25, 2008

(via the NY Times)

(via inothernews)

Aug 27, 200912 notes

“And may it be said of us, both in dark passages and in bright days, in the words of Tennyson that my brothers quoted and loved, and that have special meaning for me now:

“I am a part of all that I have met
Tho much is taken, much abides
That which we are, we are —
One equal temper of heroic hearts
Strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end. For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.” —Ted Kennedy - 1980 Democratic National Convention Address (via apsies) (via think4yourself)

Aug 27, 200916 notes

“I don’t have much to say, except a personal thought. I remember the days, several decades ago, when Ted Kennedy was treated — mainly, but not only, on the right — as a figure of derision. He was mocked for his appearance, his personal life, his unabashed liberalism.

And now he’s remembered as a great man. The thing is, he didn’t change — he always was.

” —Ted Kennedy - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com (via think4yourself)

Aug 27, 200912 notes

robot-heart-politics:

azspot:

Indeed, Republicans seem determined to preserve the uniquely American system under which health care is rationed today — on the basis of employment status and ability to pay. According to the respected Institute of Medicine, this market-based approach to rationing has held the number of untimely deaths each year to a mere 18,000 uninsured souls. Thanks to Medicare, all of those victims are younger than 65, but apparently that is the kind of age-based rationing that real Republicans can embrace.

After reading his broadside, one is left wondering exactly what health reform plan Steele thought he was attacking. At one point, Steele claims that Democrats would prevent Americans from keeping their doctors or an insurance plan they like. Later, he warns that government will soon be setting caps on how many heart surgeries could be performed in the United States each year. Where is he getting this stuff? Has the chairman of the Republican Party somehow gotten hold of a top-secret plan for a government takeover of the health-care system that GOP operatives snatched during a break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters?

If all that sounds spurious and unsubstantiated, it is. And like many of the overstated claims in this column, its purpose is to highlight the lies, distortions and political scare tactics that Steele and other Republicans have used to poison the national debate over health reform.

Have you no shame, sir? Have you no shame?

This is a very good article and this snippet only scratches the surface. Read.

I listened to Steele this morning on NPR. Ugh, what a douche.

Aug 27, 20099 notes

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Aug 27, 200913 notes

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Aug 26, 20093 notes

“He and I were talking after his diagnosis. And I said, I think you’re the only other person I’ve met, who like me, is more optimistic, more enthusiastic, more idealistic, sees greater possibilities after 36 years than when we were elected. He was 30 years-old when he was elected; I was 29 years-old. And you’d think that would be the peak of our idealism. But I genuinely feel more optimistic about the prospect for my country today than I did — I have been any time in my life. And it was infectious when you were with him. You could see it, those of you who knew him and those of you who didn’t know him. You could just see it in the nature of his debate, in the nature of his embrace, in the nature of how he every single day attacked these problems. And, you know, he was never defeatist. He never was petty — never was petty. He was never small. And in the process of his doing, he made everybody he worked with bigger — both his adversaries as well as his allies. Don’t you find it remarkable that one of the most partisan, liberal men in the last century serving in the Senate had so many of his — so many of his foes embracing him, because they know he made them bigger, he made them more graceful by the way in which he conducted himself.” —Joe Biden on the passing of his friend, Ted Kennedy (via apsies) (via think4yourself)

Aug 26, 200914 notes

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Aug 26, 20095 notes

“People are good and trustworthy and generally just concerned with getting through the day,” Newmark says. If most people are good and their needs are simple, all you have to do to serve them well is build a minimal infrastructure allowing them to get together and work things out for themselves. Any additional features are almost certainly superfluous and could even be damaging.” —Why Craigslist Is Such a Mess (via rahmin) (via jayparkinsonmd) (via mikehudack)

Aug 26, 200910 notes

Aug 26, 200919 notes

“

Not only do Hughes’ movies imply that teens can care as much about romance as about sex, they remind us of a time when you could be odd and be mostly left alone to deal with it. No extreme interventions or psychiatric diagnoses.

If the brooding, solitary Andie played by Ringwald in “Pretty in Pink” were in high school in 2009, it’s hard to imagine she wouldn’t be a candidate for anti-depression therapy. Likewise, if “The Breakfast Club,” which is about five teens serving time in Saturday detention, took place in a post-Prozac, post-Columbine America, Ally Sheedy’s mostly mute, kleptomaniac misfit would have undoubtedly been medicated, and Anthony Michael Hall’s character would have received a lot more than detention for bringing a flare gun to school. As for Ferris Bueller, the kid obviously needed Ritalin.

I’m not suggesting that any of us were better off when legitimate disorders went unrecognized and untreated. But in a culture in which diagnoses sometimes seem to get handed out like conservation-awareness fliers in front of the supermarket, it’s worth asking ourselves if old-fashioned eccentricity — of the teen or adult variety — can too easily be supplanted by the ease of assigning a code from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Hughes, who left the movie business in the early 1990s because he feared the impact Hollywood would have on his children, should be remembered not just for the way he appreciated weirdness but for the way he normalized it — not with pills but with paisley.”

” —John Hughes: He made weird normal (Los Angeles Times) (via psychotherapy)

Aug 26, 2009133 notes

Aug 26, 2009229 notes

sabine:(via amyyy:soupsoup)

Aug 24, 200942 notes

“You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could’ve, should’ve, would’ve, happened. Or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the fuck on.” —Tupac

Aug 23, 2009

“I’ll tell you what really doesn’t speak of our health care system - that in those 16 months (since he underwent a botched surgical procedure), the hole that they stitched up in Glenn Beck’s ass hasn’t healed enough for him to stop talking out of it.” —JON STEWART, who points out the Glenn Beck, cheerleader for the U.S. health care system in its present state, once said “getting well in this country could actually kill you!”, on The Daily Show (via inothernews)

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I could never take the place of your man - Eels

I love this cover. Original by Prince.

Aug 14, 20097 notes

lawful:notthatkindagay:

Blogger/activist Lane Hudson stood up and interrupted Bill Clinton’s keynote last night at the Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh, asking, “Mr. President, will you call for a repeal of DOMA and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell? Right now?”

Clinton responded to Hudson that he ought to go to one of the health care town halls. “You’d do really well there.” But Hudson did get the answer he wanted, and more on DOMA.

Answered Clinton, when interrupted again: “You wanna talk about ‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’, I’ll tell you exactly what happened. You couldn’t deliver me any support in the Congress and they voted by a veto-proof majority in both houses against my attempt to let gays serve in the military and the media supported them. They raised all kinds of devilment. And all most of you did was to attack me instead of getting some support in the congress. Now, that’s the truth.”

Clinton went on to explain why he signed DOMA: “We were attempting at the time, in a very reactionary congress, to head off an attempt to send a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to the states. And if you look at the Levin referendum much later in 2004, in the election, which the Republicans put on the ballot, to try to get the base vote for President Bush up, I think it’s obvious that something had to be done to try to keep the Republican congress presenting that.”

Aug 14, 200919 notes

“I’m telling you no matter how low they drive support for this with misinformation, the minute the president signs a health care reform bill his approval will go up. Secondly, within a year, when all those bad things they say will happen don’t happen, and all the good things happen, approval will explode. Right now the Republicans are sitting around rooting for the President to fail. And one of the reasons people are so hysterical at all these health care town-hall meetings… is they know they have no chance to beat health care this time, unless they can mortify with rigid fears some moderate conservative Democrats. Why do I know? Because they don’t have the filibuster this time.” —Bill Clinton (via apsies)
(via thepoliticalpartygirl)

Aug 14, 2009101 notes

notthatkindagay:jasencomstock:

You would think that if Republicans wanted to totally mischaracterize a health care provision and demagogue it like nobody’s business, they would at least pick something that the vast majority of them hadn’t already voted for just a few years earlier. Because that’s not just shameless, it’s stupid.

Yes, that’s right. Remember the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill, the one that passed with the votes of 204 GOP House members and 42 GOP Senators? Anyone want to guess what it provided funding for? Did you say counseling for end-of-life issues and care? Ding ding ding!!

Let’s go to the bill text, shall we? “The covered services are: evaluating the beneficiary’s need for pain and symptom management, including the individual’s need for hospice care; counseling the beneficiary with respect to end-of-life issues and care options, and advising the beneficiary regarding advanced care planning.” The only difference between the 2003 provision and the infamous Section 1233 that threatens the very future and moral sanctity of the Republic is that the first applied only to terminally ill patients. Section 1233 would expand funding so that people could voluntarily receive counseling before they become terminally ill.

So either Republicans were for death panels in 2003 before turning against them now—or they’re lying about end-of-life counseling in order to frighten the bejeezus out of their fellow citizens and defeat health reform by any means necessary. Which is it, Mr. Grassley (“Yea,” 2003)?

Aug 14, 200914 notes

“I covered the battle to create the Medicare system back in the 1960s. The cries of “socialized medicine” worked for years until President Lyndon B. Johnson rammed Medicare through Congress in 1965. Johnson signed the Medicare legislation on former President Harry Truman’s desk in Independence, Mo. Truman had first proposed a health care program for the elderly back in the 1950s. Truman, still feisty at age 81, was all smiles. I remember a newsman went up to Johnson and told him “my mother thanks you.” Johnson turned to him and said: “You should thank me,” meaning Medicare would help families with the increasingly heavy financial burden of caring for seniors. What kind of a country are we if we do not provide everyone with the excellent medical care that only some of us now receive?” —Helen Thomas | Health Care For All | WGAL (via retropolitics) (via apsies)

Aug 13, 2009

brooklynmutt:

Behind the scenes, however, Mr. Obama and his advisers have been quite active, sometimes negotiating deals with a degree of cold-eyed political realism potentially at odds with the president’s rhetoric.

Aug 13, 20091 note

“Poor people die because they can’t get food, because they can’t get shelter, because they can’t get health care, because they can’t get homes in places that aren’t polluted, because they can’t get food without toxins, because they can’t get time off to supervise their kids, because they can’t spend money on safety, because they can’t spend money on education, because they can’t get a vacation from the stress that’s literally eating away at their brain. We don’t even know all the reasons poor people die. But we do know that they do. It’s not polite to talk about that. We talk about the poverty rate or the poverty level or the poverty gap, not kids catching on fire and adults wasting away. We talk about economic development and markets and education, not the millions who die each year coughing blood as tuberculosis takes over their body. (They don’t die from tuberculosis. They die because they can’t afford the vaccine.)” —

Aaron Swartz (via azspot)

Try to remember the actual humans affected by the casual lunchtime political conversations you have with your friends. I think that’s also David Simon’s main thesis.

(via dalasverdugo)

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mikehudack: asprettyasasong:jhnbrssndn: redguard: thedeathoftruespirit: adamquinn:

The US spent $711 billion on military last year. Even more this year.

We’re spending several times more money on killing millions than it would take to save and improve the lives of billions.

This estimate is bullshit. The corruption and total lack of infrastructure in the areas that most need our help will double, triple, quadruple the actual cost. And the comparison to military spending is completely unfair as well. The United States military contributes to a pax Americana that allows for globalization. These folks would be even worse off without globalization. Some portion of that US military budget (and the EU military budget, etc.) is actually helping feed starving people around the world.

I originally posted this without comment, but Mike makes excellent points.

Aug 12, 200964 notes

Listen

fuckyeahsongs:

Jack’s Mannequin- Dark Blue

Aug 12, 2009209 notes

sabine:

Face palm.

(via tonysojka)

Aug 12, 2009148 notes

jhnbrssndn: mudwerks:

Alternet is running an excerpt from Ellen Rupel Shell’s fascinating new book, Cheap: the High Cost of Discount Culture. The piece handily illustrates Shell’s argument that outlet malls are for suckers.

A few choice points, summarized for your convenience:

Manufacturers’ suggested retail prices are a joke, often wholly fabricated to give consumers impression that they are getting bargains.

Outlet malls are based in the middle of nowhere not only because the real estate is cheaper but as part of their marketing strategy. When consumers have to drive an hour or two to shop, shopping becomes a day-long venture, a veritable investment. Those who make the trek will thus feel compelled to spend more to make up for their “sunk costs” in time, energy, and gas.

Instead of following the old-school mall approach of trying to make consumers comfortable in order to keep them inside, outlet malls do the opposite: they go for discomfort and turnover. Shell writes that, “On average, shoppers spend nearly 80 percent more money at a bare bones outlet mall than they would at a fully loaded regional mall.”

Many stores-Coach, the Gap, Brooks Brothers, Ann Taylor, Donna Karan—produce lower-quality merchandise specifically for their outlets.

How Outlet Malls Have Convinced Shoppers into Thinking They’re Getting a Sweet Deal [Cheap: the High Cost of Discount Culture]

Aug 12, 200919 notes

“

You have no idea what it’s like to be called into a sterile conference room with a hospital administrator you’ve never met before and be told that your mother’s insurance policy will only pay for 30 days in ICU. You can’t imagine what it’s like to be advised that you need to “make some decisions,” like whether your mother should be released “HTD” which is hospital parlance for “home to die,” or if you want to pay out of pocket to keep her in the ICU another week. And when you ask how much that would cost you are given a number so impossibly large that you realize there really are no decisions to make. The decision has been made for you. “Living will” or no, it doesn’t matter. The bank account and the insurance policy have trumped any legal document.

If this isn’t a “death panel” I don’t know what is.

So don’t talk to me about “death panels” you heartless, cruel, greedy sons of bitches, who are only too happy to keep the profits rolling in to the big insurance companies while you spout your mealy-mouthed bumper sticker slogans about the evils of socialism. You don’t even know what socialism is. You don’t know what government healthcare is. You have no fucking clue about anything except that you lost the last election and you’re pissed off.” —Southern Beale: Don’t Talk To Me About Death Panels (via AZspot, marco, lallygagging, robot-heart-politics, apsies) (via bringmethathorizon) (via think4yourself)

Aug 12, 2009283 notes

jhnbrssndn: redguard: thedeathoftruespirit: adamquinn:

The US spent $711 billion on military last year. Even more this year.

We’re spending several times more money on killing millions than it would take to save and improve the lives of billions.

Aug 12, 200964 notes

“Most everyone knows that John retreated from Hollywood and became a sort of J.D. Salinger for Generation X. But really, sometime before then, he had retreated from us and from the kinds of movies that he had made with us. I still believe that the Hughes films of which both Michael and I were a part (specifically ‘Sixteen Candles’ and ‘The Breakfast Club’) were the most deeply personal expressions of John’s. In retrospect, I feel that we were sort of avatars for him, acting out the different parts of his life — improving upon it, perhaps. In those movies, he always got the last word. He always got the girl.” —

Molly Ringwald

(via julieklausner)

(via tylercoates)

Aug 12, 200915 notes

“Can anyone even imagine what would have happened if a long haired liberal type had shown up at one of W’s events with a gun and a sign that said “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” THAT protestor would still be trying to extricate himself from terrorism charges, and probably looking at 10 years in a federal prison.” —Comment made by nurseattorney on Huffington Post re: Protester With Gun Outside Obama Town Hall (VIDEO) (via retropolitics) (via apsies) (via notthatkindagay)

Aug 11, 2009

“The U.S. government should not be running ‘death panels.’ It’s far too big and out-of-control to effectively run something that important. That responsibility should remain where it is now - with private insurance companies.” —SAMANTHA BEE, The Daily Show.

Aug 11, 200914 notes

joeyjoseph:

Jordan.Catalano.

Aug 11, 20093 notes

“My earliest memory of Eunice is of a young girl with great humor, sharp wit, and a boundless passion to make a difference. She understood deeply the lesson our mother and father taught us — much is expected of those to whom much has been given. Throughout her extraordinary life, she touched the lives of millions, and for Eunice that was never enough. The seeds of compassion and hope she planted decades ago in her backyard summer camp were inspired by her love for our sister Rosemary. Over the years, she grew those seeds into a worldwide movement that has given persons with disabilities everywhere the opportunity to lead more productive and fulfilling lives. We would never have had an Americans with Disabilities Act without her.” —Senator Kennedy on the passing of his sister, Eunice (via apsies)

Aug 11, 20095 notes

Aug 11, 200928 notes

Aug 11, 200910 notes

“On a recent episode of 17 Kids and Counting, the Duggars paid a visit to The Creation Museum, which is located in Kentucky, just across the thin dividing line between being a deeply spiritual individual and being a total asshole. While there, the Duggars confirmed that they not only believe that the Earth is 6,000 years old, but also that humans coexisted with dinosaurs. This view of history is known in Evangelical circles as “Young Earth Creationism” and in the Scientific Community as “Completely Fucking Retarded.” —Dear FBI, Please Raid the Duggar Family Compound (via apsies)

Aug 11, 200931 notes

“I know a single word that proves our democratic government is capable of committing obscene, gleefully rabid, racist, yahooistic murder, of unarmed men, women, and children. Murders wholly devoid of military common sense. The word is a foreign word, the word is Nagasaki.” —Kurt Vonnegut (via jhnbrssndn)

Aug 10, 2009101 notes

Aug 10, 200947 notes