Bigots Do Not Belong in the Senate

Rand Paul, a candidate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky obviously never saw Giant. He believes that business owners should be able to deny service to anyone, saying, "Private business people should be able to decide whether they want to serve black people, or gays, or any other minority group." His father, whom I'm sure taught him his bigoted views, was a member of Congress. This small-minded ideology needs to end, never having belonged in our government in the first place. Let's spread the word that this individual is just a new face on an old racist mindset.

Goodbye, Teddy!

Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy
(February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009)

For me and scores of other people, today is a very sad day for politics. For others on the other side of the aisle, there is rejoicing. That shows how powerful a Senator Ted Kennedy must have been. The Liberal Lion, as he was known never became President because of Chappaquiddick, but he became the most popular of Senators for a long career. Many would kill to make that claim, but the GOP has taken every opportunity to imply Kennedy was a failure. His must have been a very dark shadow in which to stand.

I Refuse to Die for a Lobbyist's Bribe

Not even one spokesperson for single payer health care was allowed to sit at the hearing table, off from which the subject had obviously been taken by Senator Max Baucus. I can't speak for anyone else, but I would like to talk to someone from Canada or England to see exactly how this health care plan works and how much it costs whom. I have heard the opinions of the people who are against it, who coincidentally have their health care paid in full for them by my tax dollars and will never have to worry about being able to afford an operation or treatment for themselves or their children -- at my expense. But they will not allow me to have a plan that might save my life or that of a family member, telling lies to scare others into disregarding it also. Could it be because the HMO's are giving them as much money as the cigarette and oil companies are? If we could get to the bottom of the health care issue, it would have a great deal more to do with the bottom line than it has to do with health or care. I don't know much about TWITTER, but if it is a way for the masses to stay in touch on the issues that matter, let's use it to our advantage. We can defeat the Senators who are not voting in our best interest without having to wait for the next election. The founding fathers did not have the Internet, but imagine what they would have accomplished with the community advantage it provides. We should be ashamed of ourselves for not having accomplished more with this technology sooner. Email me. attic4fester@yahoo.com
We don't have to start a revolution...It's Health Care.

Matthew Shepard Murdered For Being Gay

Who disagrees with who you are?

Don't Be Fooled by Bush

The chairmen of the U.S. House and Senate Judiciary Committees were given the assignment of modernizing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The House is working hard to pass another FISA bill since Bush vetoed the last one because it did not grant immunity to the phone companies. Their new version still protects our national security, preserves civil liberties, and denies retroactive immunity to phone companies that participated in the Bush-Cheney Administration warrantless surveillance program and I hope they don't back down. Have all of you sent a message to your carrier by changing companies since you learned your own phone company, to whom you pay money every month, was spying on you? Don't reward them for that. Reward the House members who stood up to Bush and protected your rights.

The Senate also passed a bill, but theirs does not protect our civil liberties. What it does protect are the phone companies from being sued by the American people who had their privacy invaded. It more importantly protects the Bush Administration who ordered that invasion. If either party did nothing wrong, they wouldn't need so much protecting. Further, the bill the White House so fervently supports in the interest of national security, accusing Congress of putting the American people in danger, really does nothing to endanger or protect our country from terrorism despite what Bush claims. It protects him by staving off the investigations and wouldn't you try to keep people from learning what you have been up to if you were Bush? To do this, he has been irresponsibly making false claims that we are more vulnerable to terrorism until a new bill is passed.
By pushing back against right-wing pressure, Congress has the Bush-Cheney Administration bolstering their scare tactics and suggesting that congressional Democrats' efforts to get the FISA bill right this time will invite another terrorist attack. I am somehow doubtful that FISA occurs to suicide bombers before they go boom, but I could be wrong. Bush is trying to scare Congress and the American people into accepting a FISA bill that includes retroactive telecom immunity, further eroding our Constitutional privacy rights. People, please be smarter than that. Support those who are protecting your rights. Pay attention to the issues and think about your vote before it is cast and for whom.

The people who do not care about protecting our rights had no problem investing in a controversial television commercial evoking ticking time-bomb imagery straight out of TV's 24 to shock the American people into supporting another flawed FISA law. They have a very low opinion of the American people if they think we can't see through the fear mongering. Congress is pushing for a better FISA bill, but a few loud voices in Washington are more determined than ever to ram through another flawed piece of legislation. The smarter we get, the more nervous they get and the harder they try. Too bad they don't work as hard at running our government as they do at fooling the public.

Poor Pharmaceutical Companies -- Please Donate Generously

The current Senate bill will ban most "reverse payments", i.e. settlements paid to generic manufacturers by brand-name companies to delay the introduction of the generic drug so they can make even more money off the American consumers to the tune of billions of dollars. The Federal Trade Commission has called on Congress to take action because they obviously had to be told this was a bad thing. Why was it legal in the first place? I don't know why I ask questions to which I already know the answer, that answer being 'someone is getting their pocket lined to look the other way.' This is how our government works. The power of their voting constituents is not as inspiring as the power of the lobbyists' checkbook. Even so, go to: How to Reach Your Congress Member: Address, Email, Phone to lend your support to the honest members of Congress who fight for our best interests even when they do so alone. There are a few.