thom hartmann can you and jim hightower unite to lead the movement for campaign finance reform?

campaign finance reform is needed to change things.lets demand that this happens next.lets seek out what thoms hartmann and jim hightower ideas are to see this happen. jim talks about how loop holes are made for the corporations and politicians can get around reform. lets seek out thom and jim's guidance on this and make true reform happen. thom and jim i ask you to help us see that true campaign finance reform happens.

Carrie "Good (American, Wealthy & White-Skinned) Folk should breed (and consume good and services) like bunnies" Lucas . . .

I have a radical idea.
Let's get a grassroots movement going and encorage everyone in America to vote the 4th or 5th candidate on ANY ticket.
At least, you know they haven't received any money form the fat cats and we would have idealistic people voted in...they can't possibly be worse than what we have now.
It's time we voted regular citizens into office and stop giving just two parties ALL the power...except for a very few, the Democrats need to go AND most importantly ALL the republicans...in both houses.
We need a serious RESET to our system.
Things are a bad as I ever seen in my life time. I lived through Reganomics...that was nothing compare to today.
I campaigned for OBAMA and knocked on doors....I feel violated.
It's time average Americans take care of America issues....these media seeking money hungry divas need to go.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/attytood/

The lethal cynicism of Joe Lieberman

I started to write a longer post about Sen. Joe Lieberman's move today to kill the more progressive parts of the healthcare bill today...but frankly I couldn't stomach devoting that much of my limited time on earth to him at this point. Let me just say this: I've been paying attention to politics on some level since I was nine years old and watched the cops beating up the hippies at the 1968 Democratic Convention, and over the course of 41 years I have never seen a move so cynical and so spiteful, at the expense of the health and well-being of millions of Americans, as Lieberman's backflips to kill any provision that is supported by liberals, even if it's something that he himself supported just three months ago.

Nine years ago, when he ran for vice president, Lieberman said that allowing people over 55 to buy into Medicare -- the very idea he killed today -- was the core of his ideas for health care, and he repeated that as recently as September 2009:

By allowing citizens who are not eligible for Medicare or Medicaid to buy in for a rate below the private market, the government can extend coverage to more of those who are currently uninsured, he said.

To arrive at his position, Lieberman said he reached out to "every conceivable group" in the state, including residents, providers, doctors and hospitals.

Now, it's clear that Lieberman doesn't want a bill, period, and his reasons keep shifting because his real reason is to stick it to the liberals who defeated him in a 2006 Democratic Senate primary (he then ran as an independent and won). Lieberman said he's worried about the cost of the Medicare buy-in but then he decided not to wait for the cost analysis from the Congressional Budget Office. Newsweek's Howard Fineman, who tried to get an explanation of the flip-flop from Lieberman's staff, came away with this:

The other half is it's personal with Joe, not with Obama, 'cause don't forget that Obama, the President, supported Lieberman in the fight in the party in Connecticut. It's the grassroots left of the Democratic Party ...He wants Moulitsas, he wants Firedoglake, he wants all those people who rode around on the bus of the challenger, who defeated him in the Democratic primary.

Hey, we're all human, we've all said or done things out of spite -- but for most of us nobody died when that happened. With millions fewer Americans carrying health insurance because of Joe Lieberman's treachery, people who would have been healthy will get sick, people who who would have been protected will file for bankruptcy, and people who would be alive will die. Pure and simple. And that unnecessary blood will be on the hands of Joe Lieberman, who's now offered no constructive platform for improving medicine in the country beyond the politics of petty spite and personal treachery. At least when thousands of people died needlessly in Iraq, there were plenty of others to share the blame.

But this one's all on you, Joe. And America will never, ever forget.

Hey Chris, The poster with lieberman's head pasted on it is called HUMOR..and pretty funny I might add... do yourself a favor and reach around and pull that stick out your @ss ! you dweeb.

Government by organized money

Perhaps Obama should be reading FDR's October 31, 1936 Madison Square Garden Speech, he might find the courage necessary to repeat: "We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob." http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/text/us/fdr1936.html Because after the banksters visited President Obama they decided to declare that 'We are not the president, but we are the bosses' : "Putting Obama on Hold, in a Hint of Who’s Boss" http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/business/15sorkin.html

Barack Obama will earn an A plus Honors --
at any school he chooses --
from any teachers he chooses to report to --

his HIGHER TEACHERS are waiting from him at COP15!

Judge pays attention to the part of the Constitution regarding Bills of Attainder and Republican lawyers grouse . . .

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/gop_lawyers_slam_rulin...

And all because Acorn helped stop red-lining in the 1970s . . . Talk about holding a grudge.

@ Mark
Thanks for sharing this slice of life post. I enjoyed reading it.

The Census count next year is expected to be a challenging endeavor, with potentially millions more of the homeless and “in transit” to find and count. Prior numbers ranged from less than 250,000 to 3 million, depending upon the level of advocacy. I know for a fact that “official” counts are inaccurate; many of the homeless deliberately seek “shelter” in places where they won’t be found, whether to avoid police harassment, to steer clear of mental or violent hard cases, or they just want privacy. Undocumented workers are also being told by immigrant advocates to shun census takers.

I have my own homelessness story to tell. As I’ve grown older, I’ve become cynical on some subjects and radicalized on others, but there was a time in my younger days when I was absurdly naïve and trusting. One day I fancied that Los Angeles would be a stimulating location for a new start in life. I bought a ticket on a Greyhound bus, pocketed my life savings of about a $1,000 and off I was in search of an exciting new career (in what I hadn’t yet thought of). It was a 2,000 mile trip, mostly dull and uncomfortable, even when we stopped in Salt Lake City, where while I was admiring the gardening on the grounds of the Mormon temple compound I was accosted by a very attractive female who tried to convert me to Mormonism. Back on the bus I found myself seated next to a new partner, who told me he was from Los Angeles, and would be glad to help me find a place to stay, and maybe even a job; he was such a fine fellow that I showed him my roll of bills. My new friend informed me that he had just left Texas, where he and his brother were helping to tidy-up a acquaintance’s abode by moving some of his more expensive belongings into the bed of their pick-up truck, while he was gone. That is until the police arrived after a neighbor reported the goings-on, and they were obliged to high-tail it through a few yards and over a few fenses, leaving their truck behind.

Now, I’m certain that most people would be wary of “assistance” from a character of this sort, but I didn’t know anyone in L.A., and this guy seemed most willing and surprisingly friendly, given that even my name was a matter of indifference to him. When we arrived in L.A., we sat in someone’s front lawn at noon and smoked some pot that he happened to have on him, and this had absolutely nothing to do with making uncomplicated my new friend’s aptitude for stealing things that were not his—like of all my money while I was asleep. When I discovered my deprived situation, it didn’t matter if I was in a haze or a daze; I walked aimlessly for about twelve hours around town trying to concentrate my mind on the most proficient and painless way of killing myself. I finally collapsed in an abandoned school house full of broken glass; I fell into unconsciousness before I could consider their uses.

By the time I awoke at the dewy break of dawn, sunshiny with birds chirping and all that other crap, I had forgotten the previous day’s tribulation and was ready to start afresh. What was that lyric from the song Me and Bobbie McGee? “Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.” I thought that being a beach bum in Santa Monica would be fun, until some kids started throwing mini firecrackers at me while I trying to sleep on the ledge of a lifeguard shack. Someplace down the beach was an open restroom, where I hid in a stall when company arrived around 2 am. I won’t describe the activity that occurred in the adjoining room with the sink, because this is a PG site; thus ended my career as a beach bum.

A couple days later someone who ascertained my impoverished situation while I was discreetly scanning the garbage cans outside a McDonald’s suggested that he had a place for me to stay for awhile; I found myself in house in North Hollywood run by Christian-types of the fundamentalist variety. I won’t say that it was difficult to abide by their rules, but I sensed right-off that I wasn’t going to “fit-in.” One day we went on a tour of the local churches; by evening I was ready to go home, but the “brothers” were not. The next stop on the itinerary had one of those rituals where you stand, sit and kneel every five minutes; it was fortunate that I was on my knees when sleep overcame me, because everyone around thought this pathetic sinner was deeply in prayer, and ought not be disturbed. The next day it was more of the same. I decided that I couldn’t fake it anymore; while we were waiting outside another church, I decided to take a look around, and kept on going.

I was one of L.A.’s homeless for another five weeks, had enough of that career move, and decided to visit an Army recruiting center in Crenshaw, back in the days when they took everyone.