Can soldiers every really be brought home again after they've experienced combat? Doesn't seem like those who go are the ones that return.

All the more reason to avoid war at all costs, as far as I'm concerned.

In regards to genetically modified seeds... hasn't anyone ever read The Merchant of Venice. If these seed companies want farmers to not to use their seeds, then have them come take their seeds back, but leave the good seeds behind. A la take your pound of flesh, but not one drop of blood more.

Thom in regards to your tariff rant, I agree 100%, but if they don't want to put tariffs on goods then make the shipping companies pay for 100% inspection of containers at the ports... see how quickly shipping cost go up then, and its a good American job creator. (I think I mentioned something like this months ago)

Uh, Craig. Are you a conservative or just playing one? As you have only shown yourself to be uncritical and to repeat other people’s words, I can only assume as much.
Which unjust and unnecessary war is he talking about? Probably the one started by Demos, no?
It’s time we turn that around and tell the conservatives – The nine most terrifying words in the English language are – I’m from the corporation and I’m here to help.Now that is just funny shit. I am really scared that a corporation is going to come into my house uninvited and help me out. Until then, I will be more concerned about the Police State as Antifascist was always concerned about also.

Keep up the spamming, maybe one day I will read the whole thing…

Thom's Blog entry 125: Pay Cuts for Congress? & “Big” Governments Republicans Mandating Marriage……

budget imagesRep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-AZ) introduced a bill last week to slash pay for members of Congress 5% or $8,700 a year — and freeze their automatic cost-of-living increase. With Congress’ approval ratings “spiraling downward,” Kirkpatrick said, “Families across the country are getting by on lower wages…so why shouldn’t senators and representatives have to feel the same pinch?” The cut would be the first since the Great Depression. She said she’s already started handing over 5 percent of her pay every month. Hey, Congresswoman Kirkpatrick – how about instead of leading the entire country, including Congress, to ever-lower wages and bringing us all to Wal-Mart pay levels, how about instead increasing the minimum wage, change our trade and tax policies to bring jobs back to America, and break up the big vulture corporations that put out of business local companies and prevent entrepreneurs from even starting new companies? Stop promoting the Republican idea that we should all be paid less, and take us back to an era when worker pay increased along with corporate productivity.
Thom you are at it again. Too funny about your ideological support for minimum wages and "living wages", so I was surprised as to how you spun the latest.

Let's see people should get paid based on what Thom? Just because you want income to be high for all including our "elites" does not make it so. Why should the filthy "rich" in this case get more pay for obviously not performing their job? Do you think their approval rating means anything? If they were waiters, do you think they would get any tips? Of course you think they should get paid no matter how bad their "service" is? I am sure you tip the same for lousy service because you want them to have a so called living wage?

I know you think that productivity should dictate wage increases when the productivity goes up but are you then willing to concede that wages should in fact go down when productivity goes down??? Not likely as you want it both ways. You obviously have no understanding of labor markets.

This is obvious in the sense that on one hand you want more small business but unwilling to actually lower the barriers to their formation including but not limited to minimum wages. It is not large corporations {or as you call them: big vulture corporations} that fear rising minimum wages as they will just pass on costs. It is the small businesses that will have higher obstacles to formation of small businesses. Take a gander at a couple of points about minimum wages:
5 Things You Didn’t Know About the Minimum Wage
The Effect of Minimum Wage Increases on Retail and Small Business Employment | EPI Study

@Nels, I know- Norman Goldman emailed me back about this and said " this is a dangerous game...a civil war started with this issue happening!"

Also consider the treatment that Venezuela gets compared to say, Honduras:

Hillary Clinton’s “Damage Control” Trip to Latin America
March 11th 2010, by Mark Weisbrot

Hillary Clinton’s Latin America tour is turning out to be about as successful as George W. Bush’s visit in 2005, when he ended up leaving Argentina a day ahead of schedule just to get the hell out of town. The main difference is that she is not being greeted with protests and riots. For that she can thank the positive media image that her boss, President Obama, has managed to maintain in the region, despite his continuation of his predecessor’s policies.

But she has been even more diplomatically clumsy that Bush, who at least recognized that there were serious problems and knew what not to say. "The Honduras crisis has been managed to a successful conclusion," Clinton said in Buenos Aires, adding that “it was done without violence.”

This is rubbing salt into her hosts’ wounds, as they see the military overthrow of President Mel Zelaya last June, and the United States’ subsequent efforts to legitimize the dictatorship there, as not only a failure but a threat to democracy throughout the region.

It is also an outrageous thing to say, given the political killings, beatings, mass arrests and torture that the coup government used in order to maintain power and repress the pro-democracy movement. The worst part is that they are still committing these crimes.
more at: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5181

A long time ago when they first began, all fire departments were private entities. Sometimes 2 different companies would show up at a fire and get into a fight about who would put it out while the building burned. Later on, you could pay them a fee in advance, and they'd put their particular medallion on your house to show you had paid for their services. Fast forward to today. There are no private fire departments. All are municipal operations. How did this happen? People realized that having government run, universal fire protection was the best, most efficient way to insure the public good by protecting everyone equally. It's been that way for so long, and still makes so much sense, that only a lunatic would think that privatizing fire departments into a for profit enterprise is a good idea. Fire fighters are now correctly thought of as first responders, those whose responsibility it is to protect the public from danger. While the police and other law enforcement agencies are also first responders, their duties are even more closely associated with the governments obligation to defend it's citizens. It's interesting to note that there were once private police forces such as the Pinkerton agency. Those companies have devolved into security services that do not have the right of law enforcement. Universal health care provides exactly the same type of good as fire fighters and the police. It is shameful that in a country as advanced as the USA, our health care system is still living in the past, and that those who profit from it want to keep it that way at the expense of the nation as a whole. It's ridiculous that the USA has yet to see the simple truth that health care cannot be a for profit venture as it is structured today.

@harry ashburn, thank you for the info on Thom's 2-5 PM show (CST). I have added it to my favorites' column.

While Thom and his AFL-CIO guest are busy scapegoating Mexico, maybe Thom can ask him about this fun fact: in 2008, China had a total trade surplus of $295 billion; the U.S. portion of that surplus was $266 billion ($50 billion more than the total imports from Mexico). Something seems terribly amiss here. They might also consider the fact that the Whirlpool move isn’t really about Mexico, is it? It’s about the inability of the U.S. to compete with the imports from Asia. At least Whirlpool is keeping jobs in the same hemisphere.

How will the subsidy be administrated. Will the government send us a check and then we send the check to the insurer- or what- Can you imagine if they sent it to us first? Hello beach!

@zero G thx- @Nels- Leno is sponsoring our single payer in CA. This is the THIRD time this has come thru.

The conspiracy theory here is that the Republicans de regulated our energy industry to get rid of Davis because it was know Davis would have signed single payer into law. Thus, he was recalled and Schwarzenegger put in his place- who has now vetoed this TWICE before.
Here is the bill: http://leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/postquery?bill_number=sb_810&sess=CUR&hous...

Lastly, on David Swanson's Facebook page, he is reporting that there is a law in Congress that would forbid states from having health care programs period!