Photo Political Humor Kerry
One creates lists in the self-induced hypnosis of believing what you write is of some importance.
I don’t believe this for a single, solitary second and as proof positive I offer the following.
Worst letter received in a long time
Michael Steele, Chairman of the National Republican Party writes to claim me as an active member of his party. My blog, as you might note, is titled Still Liberal at 82. He throws in a phony Census form that even I, a former magazine research director, find astonishingly misleading. (Believe me I have plenty to atone for in the research area but I’ll answer to Saint Peter – if I get that far.)
Best letter received in a long time
Barack Obama sends me a Commemorative Presidential Photo along with his thanks for my grassroots support. (OK – I sent money to the campaign.) It arrives the following day.
Under separate cover I also receive a 2009 Priority Issues Survey. It’s way, way more honest than the Census received from Republican Chairman Steele. Is it perfect from a research standpoint? Nope.
Best elections of my lifetime
1948. Truman vs. Dewey. The winner of course was Thomas E. Dewey.
1960. JFK won and my wife gave birth to a girl that same day. She, of course, now lives in Seattle; works for The Evil Empire and is a rabid Republican. There is a message here – somewhere.
2008. Obama won defeating the two worst candidates ever to grace a political ticket.
Worst elections of my lifetime
2000. Bush vs. Gore. The winner of course was Thomas E. Dewey.
2004. Bush vs. Kerry. Bush won and promptly resigned in favor of Dick (“Watch out I’m armed.”) Cheney.
1972. Nixon vs. Humphrey. Nixon later found China. He also seemed to have detested everybody and resigned only to later keep sending the taxpayers bills for his recordings. A truly rotten guy.
Best sports teams of my lifetime
1937. New York Yankees. Two of their farm teams in Newark and Kansas City could have won the National League pennant.
1940. Chicago Bears. They beat the Washington Redskins with Sammy Baugh 73-0. And they had that newfangled (“it will never work”) T-Formation run by a Jewish quarterback, Sid Luckman, from that most improbable of colleges, Columbia.
Any year the Boston Celtics had Bill Russell at Center. He was, maybe 6’11” but was the best defensive basketball player of all time. Sure there was a guy named Jordan and he was great but he couldn’t laugh with Russell.
Best products of my lifetime
Personal computer. My first, purchased in 1982, cost $5,000. It did virtually nothing but promised a lot, later delivered, for the future. You can buy one now for $600 with roughly ten thousand times the power, memory and general ability.
TV remote. Every time I use one I save four to six steps. It adds up and has allowed me to ponder the world at 82.
Kindle. Unexplainable but wonderful. The future as far as general reading, research and education is concerned. Of course you hear a lot of “I need the feel of a book.” Baloney!
Best homes of my lifetime
Pleasantville, New York. Our very first house. It cost a fortune to run, housed a spanking new baby girl and when it snowed and we were without milk our Golden Retriever and I walked to the nearest neighbor – two hundred yards away and successfully begged for her sustenance.
Sassamansville, PA. A farm house with 70 acres initially constructed in 1825 with a new addition dating to 1875. It overlooked a Lutheran Church from Revolutionary War days and was Currier & Ives top to bottom. One delightful morning I dragged a sled to the top of our little mountain, selected and cut a Christmas tree for the holidays. We may have had 70 acres but the tree, I later discovered, was not on our property. Shh!
I worked in Bala Cynwyd, 43 miles away; a wonderful but lengthy drive. Sassamansville with a population of less than 300 had a minor-league-famous Polo Field and a Fire House at the bottom of our driveway. Norman Rockwell would have loved the place.
Our rent was $183.00 per month. $183.00!
Orlando, FL. We lived there in the 1960s; a mostly pre-Disney time and a wonderful city – then. For $25,000 we had a house, pool, orange trees and a Great Dane next door to play with our much younger Dalmatian. The area was well described as Pill Hill for its overdose of doctors living in the area. $25,000. $25,000!
And finally a few more quick answers begging for questions: Lou Gehrig, Bermuda Triangle, Whizzer White, Federico Garcia Lorca, Woolcott Gibbs and Ring Lardner.
Site manager Jane Powell walks where 3 million cubic yards of radioactive waste is stored. Fernald is one of many facilities that once supplied the nation's nuclear arsenal. Today, these sites pose a huge political, economic and environmental challenge. (David Kohl / For The Times / July 7, 2009)
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NUCLEAR SCARS
Toxic legacy of the Cold War
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Ohio's Fernald Preserve has flowers, birds and tons of radioactive waste. Sites that once supplied the nation's nuclear arsenal now pose a staggering political, environmental and economic challenge.
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Reporting from Fernald Preserve, Ohio - Amid the family farms and rolling terrain of southern Ohio, one hill stands out for its precise geometry.
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The 65-foot-high mound stretching more than half a mile dominates a tract of northern hardwoods, prairie grasses and swampy ponds, known as the Fernald Preserve.
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Contrary to appearances, there is nothing natural here. The high ground is filled with radioactive debris, scooped from the soil around a former uranium foundry that produced crucial parts for the nation's nuclear weapons program.
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READ MORE at the LA TIMES.
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Real estate signs are seen in the front yards of houses in this file photo taken in Maricopa,
Arizona in this May 27, 2009 file photo. The Obama administration on Monday launched
a new program to aid state and local housing finance agencies in an effort to provide
hundreds of thousands of affordable mortgages and develop or rehabilitate tens of thou-
sands of rental properties. REUTERS/Joshua Lott/Files
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Government unveils new mortgage help for states
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WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Monday unveiled a new program to support state and local housing finance agencies. The plan will help the agencies finance mortgages for first-time homebuyers and develop rental housing.
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The agencies have had a hard time raising money because of the housing crisis and credit crunch. This year, the agencies have sold about $4 billion in tax-exempt bonds — one-fourth the amount in a typical year. That reduction is limiting the number of loans they can make.
The new program uses mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to help fix the financing crunch. The two companies will package mortgages made by the housing agencies and sell them as bonds to the Treasury Department.
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CLICK HERE to read more.
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GOPers: DeMint Like A Jew "Watching Our Nation's Pennies"
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Two South Carolina County Republican Party chairmen stepped up to rebut criticism of Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) in a newspaper editorial Sunday. But their defense of the senator might be overshadowed by their use of an anti-Semitic stereotype to praise him.
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After a Democratic state senator wrote in The State that DeMint didn't bring enough money back home, Bamberg County GOP Chairman Edwin Merwin and Orangeburg County GOP Chairman James Ulmer responded that he was just looking after the nation's pennies -- like a Jew would.
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"There is a saying that the Jews who are wealthy got that way not by watching dollars, but instead by taking care of the pennies and the dollars taking care of themselves," Ulmer and Merwin wrote in a joint letter published by The Times and Democrat. "By not using earmarks to fund projects for South Carolina and instead using actual bills, DeMint is watching our nation's pennies and trying to preserve our country's wealth and our economy's viability to give all an opportunity to succeed."
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READ MORE --- Click here.
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Most Americans back govt health insurance plan: poll
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WASHINGTON (AFP) – A new poll released Tuesday found most Americans support one of the most controversial healthcare reform options being debated by lawmakers.
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The Washington Post-ABC News poll found 57 percent of Americans either strongly or somewhat support "having the government create a new health insurance plan to compete with private health insurance plans."
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Some 40 percent said they were strongly or somewhat opposed to the so-called public option, which President Barack Obama has said he favors but does not consider a non-negotiable component of any health care reform.
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READ MORE on health care – Click Here.
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Bean Amendment Beaten Back (For Now), A Blow To Wall Street
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In a major defeat for Wall Street banks, Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) has decided to withdraw an amendment that divided Democrats as they seek to impose stricter regulations on the financial industry.
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A keystone Democratic reform would create a federal Consumer Financial Protection Agency, but would allow states to pass more aggressive regulations. Wall Street banks have been fighting to include "federal preemption" in the legislation, meaning that state regulations could be no tougher than the federal guidelines. Consumer advocates said they'd rather have no bill than one with preemption because the banks could either capture the federal regulator or a new administration could strip its teeth out.
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CLICK HERE to read more on the Beaten Bean.
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Climate Spoof Forces Chamber To Decry ‘Public Relations Hoaxes’
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This morning, activists from the Yes Men troupe claiming to represent the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced the organization was reversing its years of opposition to any climate bill before Congress, saying in jest that the “Kerry-Boxer Bill is a good start to a strong climate bill.” CNBC and the Fox Business Network cited the many companies who have quit the Chamber as a reason for the fictional about-face.
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READ MORE at thinkprogress.org!
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Husband joins Army so cancer-stricken wife can get health care.
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One of the worst tragedies of the recession has been people losing their health insurance because they lost their job. Nearly 14,000 Americans lose their insurance every day. Wisconsin father Bill Caudle was laid off from his job at a plastics company in March 2009, which resulted in his family losing their employer-subsidized health care coverage. This put the family in an especially precarious position, because Bill’s wife, Michelle, was an ovarian cancer patient. After months of unsuccessfully looking for work, Caudle did the only thing he could to get his wife chemotherapy — he joined the Army
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CLICK HERE TO READ the rest of this story.
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Fix ‘Meet The Press’, Hire Rachel Maddow
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Let’s be honest, “Meet The Press” has been lost since Tim Russert’s passing. What used to be Sunday morning’s hardest-hitting, most compelling politics show has become a little soggy. David Gregory was a safe choice to replace Russert; he’s got credibility as a reporter, a bit of sense of humor, heck, he’s even pretty good-looking. And he’s made the show just that: safe. He doesn’t have fire. He doesn’t have Russert’s dogged determination, his inability to let an issue go before he gets to the truth. And “Meet The Press” isn’t the same without it.
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Agree? Disagree? READ MORE – Click HERE.
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If You Must Know:
Are Artificial Sweeteners Really That Bad For You?
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Too much sugar will make you fat, but too much artificial sweetener will ... do what, exactly? Kill you? Make you thinner? Or have absolutely no effect at all? This week marks the 40th anniversary of the Food and Drug Administration's decision to ban cyclamate, the first artificial sweetener prohibited in the U.S., and yet scientists still haven't reached a consensus about how safe (or harmful) artificial sweeteners may be. Shouldn't we have figured this out by now? (Read TIME's 1974 article on cyclmate and sacchrine.)
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The first artificial sweetener, saccharin, was discovered in 1879 when Constantin Fahlberg, a Johns Hopkins University scientist working on coal-tar derivatives, noticed a substance on his hands and arms that tasted sweet. No one knows why Fahlberg decided to lick an unknown substance off his body, but it's a good thing he did. Despite an early attempt to ban the substance in 1911 - skeptical scientists argued it was an "adulterant" that changed the makeup of food - saccharin grew in popularity, and was used to sweeten foods during sugar rationings in World Wars I and II...
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CLICK HERE for more on sweeteners.
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** On the tube last night, from Politico.com **
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(If the video is acting up, here is the link: http://www.politico.com/largevideobox.html?bcpid=15202024001&bclid=1201016315&bctid=45478569001 )
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Thoughts While Being Conservative
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If you want to have some sick, twisted video viewing, check out the “Ten Most Egregious Fox News Distortions.” (Also known as Faux Nooz, Fux Znooz, Fox Lies, etc.) The Huffington Post has these and it is a real reminder of what news IS NOT.
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CLICK HERE to watch.
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I’m getting used to/addicted to/dependent on Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. Her interviews are getting better all the time and she’s getting some great guests. Also, some freaks from the right have the guts to show up, so hats off to them for taking the leap.
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So she and Keith Olbermann may be sick puppies (according to George H.W. “Voodoo Economics” Bush, who is getting a little snippy in his senility, perhaps?) but they get the blood in this old exconservative pumping strong and fast. I just wish I had time to watch both each night, from start to finish.
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Let me put in a plug for a favorite site for news updates while I’m wrapping up. Make www.hinessight.com a regular stop as you cruise the internet. Great site!
XCon
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