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Agreed. Same reason you can't dismantle the welfare and food stamp programs in our society. We have a responsibility to take care of a certain amount of our population. If we don't, desperate people will come after everything you have worked for. And to be clear, I don't have a lot of possessions. I drive a 20 year old car. But, I would like to keep what I worked for.

You don't know how close you are as to why we have social welfare programs. It was either that or have a bunch of people come for what they need. To be fair, the poor, hungry mobs usually went into the cities and took from the rich to feed their children. They were called reds and commies and socialists for the failures of the rich to share even a penny. The boom and bust cycle of capitalism created crises every few years til in 1934, when we went on a permanent war economy. Social welfare programs like social security and unemployment were put in place in the New Deal of 1934 and we were geared up with armament work to supply the allies. Since then we have been fighting or preparing for this or that war, somewhat stabilizing the boom-or-bust cycle. Even with a social safety net the greed and avarice of the rich knows no bounds as seen by the shameful big-bank mortgage derivative crisis of 2008 in which so many innocent people lost their homes.

I have long said that since WW II our economy has depended on preparing for or fighting a war. There is a big arsenal in a town near here. The economy of that town and other towns in that county would collapse if that arsenal shut down.

The heavy oil being extracted through tar sands in Alberta and proposed to be shipped through a pipeline 800 miles long that would end in Nebraska is a heavy green-house gas emitter. Obama has said that if it can be proven that this pipeline (joined to an existing pipeline) and the heavy crude it carries to be refined in the South is more environmentally-unfriendly then he will be against it. What is not often mentioned in this debate is that the oil being replaced is heavy crude from Venezuela. Thus it contributes to our country's energy independence, but is as dirty. There will be a cut-in to the new pipeline from Montana, flowing further tar sands oil down the line. Given this reality, Obama has been telling the Energy Minister and PM of Canada that they shouldn't worry, by his test there will be an equal amount of greenhouse gasses emitted. What is left out of this equation is alternative energy sources to heavy crude. American corporate oil dinosaur corporations continue to roam the great plains screeching massive decibels of propaganda. It's coming to a head again next weekend with demonstrations against in 45 US cities and an opening tirade for the pipeline by the Senator from big oil in Alaska. I used to be upbeat that Obama would do the right thing, but by his own logic and test I think he'll end up supporting it and using it as a bargaining chip. Anybody want to bet which side Obama comes down on?

Y'know, I'm so glad that the massive oil spill in the gulf taught everyone a lesson. I mean, it was SSOOOOO LONG ago, right? Like, those oil tycoons MUST've upgraded their hardware, right? Like, totally! Ugh...this country's (and this planet's) dependence on oil is sickening. I realized several years ago that there will be no alternative energy development worth talking about until the oodle and oodles of dollars to be made in the trade of oil dry up. Nothing is holier than the Almighty Dollar! Considering how popular a video game Final Fantasy 7 was (and still is), it's a shame no one else grasped the subtext of the storyline: draining the planet's resources will ultimately kill not only the planet but everyone and everything living on it. And the final boss? An environmental terrorist. Go figure!

...the largest solar panel array in the world went on line last week. It's located in the Mojave Desert and will provide enough energy for 140K homes during peak hours of usage.

Positive news! I like that! 377 megawatts ain't nothing to sneeze at and being engineered by some of the biggest names in the corporate world like Bechtel. It's almost enough to give one hope. Most of world isn't like the Mojave dessert with 330 sunny days a year. Still, you take what progress you can get. The Saudis have the most massive desalination plants in the world. Who is to say we can't get huge returns for mega-plants in the right places? Enough to make a significant reduction if the 400,000 tons of carbon emissions being saved at Ivanpah is any indication. It's good. It' positive. It is hope.

Many people were surprised by the large percentage of people (some estimates say as high as 80%) of people against any military response by the US in Syria. Was it the right attitude? Certainly! There were no good outcomes to be seen after such military strikes.But what reasons were people giving their Congresspersons? America is not the world's police We are tired of war It would be wrong We need to take care of our own country These kinds of responses were widespread across both parties and independents and scare the living crap out of politicians and the MIC. Why? Because it limits drastically what policy options are available in certain situations where the polls may take a hit but the country won't in the case of non-action. We have been in a war economy since 1936 and are addicted to it. It would be a great conundrum if politicians couldn't take money from the Mil.-Ind.-Com. AND get people's votes. Something that would have to be corrected by scaring the crap out of us some more...

> since WW II our economy has depended on preparing for or fighting a war. It's a lot longer than that. Here's a great little essay on the subject from 1918: http://www.antiwar.com/bourne.php

About the facts of the US economy being dependent on war between 1918 and 1936 but it's a minor point. Certainly the beginning stages are there. I still believe it is in the 30s that the government made permanent policy for benefit and profit from war while controlling the lower class, which kept striking and was reaching a kind of pinnacle of resistance with with the "general" strike". Indeed, one of the years in which we had the most strikes in this country by labor was 1944 and organized labor bosses were not in control of most of them. The article you point to certainly shows what happens to organized labor striking in the armament industry or those who would try to prevent enlistment efforts in the armed forces: Heavy prison terms have been the norm. Of course, with shrinkage in the labor movement and the outsourcing(!) of war materials none of this seems to have any relevance anymore except for the possibility of an anti-war, isolationist candidate for president. Oh my, the very thought conjures us such a plethora of false-flag operations and other actions to keep the Holy Grail military budget profit in the hands of certain corporations. Interesting site Mike, though the writing is somewhat stilted and academic.

Hi all. Hey Now :) Really cool, hopefully site. One on Current events, or things in the World. Or Action :) (Notice I did'nt say activism. But nothing wrong there). Again really good site; to start dialogues with open-ended potentials... O.K. so here I go, diving in. And the subject is..da dum..Medical Marijuana. Now with this, I'm not bringing it up for the pros & cons of it's efficacy. But namely about the subject on the production end. It's a subject that is'nt going away; it's coming toward. And even in Colorado, recreational Marijuana in January. O.K. so Pot is going to be more easily available legally; less-anything resembling red tape. But what I'm curious about is, how do things..groups like the Mexican drug cartels fit into all of this? Yea sure you can have a Dispensary with 4 grow houses with rooms; but what about production in outside acreage? How is all of this production going to be done amiably? For some reason I have a feeling, forsee this whole legal cultivation biz eventually getting violent. Just from the competitive perspective. If sales become legal, or more legal..& cultivation..this is just eventually going to marginalize the cartels operating here stateside. More instances of sabotage,say. Medical Marijuana, or legal Marijuana..I guess I can see or get accustomed more to this concept daily. But I can't see how this is going to 'rise above the waterlevel of social respectability' without it falling into more cartel/crime production market-cornering desires. I don't think much thought has gone into this; Yea growers in Humbolt co. want their product to arrive to market stress free & open. Also in British Columbia. And Morocco too I guess. But again, how are the Mex. Cartels supposed to react. Or any other just-big grower/entrepreneur who owns 1/2 dozen residences..and wants his or her product to be the top dollar...all on the up & up? I don't expect consumption to really go down at all; but I cant' one bit see anything considering itself a south cartel change it's heavy handed market-cornering methods. To be honest it just scares me. Back in the beginning of August I want to say I heard on the news that the Northern Calif. wildfires..there was a suspicion that it started by arson due to a sabotage of Pot fields. 'Turns out this was'nt the case, but I have to admit this was something I never thought of before, yet it does'nt surprise me. Stands to reaso. So thats' my thoughts, on a current subject matter. Can recreational Marijuana actually come to be in the U.S.A. without the gangster prohibition criminal muscle-casualties; to run the whole gambit of it. Extortion, Legitimacy, safe growing etc. If I was the owner of a Dispensary in Colorado, when January arrives I might have more fear of losing my head if not dealing with a cartel representitive. Or having a plan to deal with. If pressure gets applied, who you going to run to?

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen! You're now in a grey business rather than a black business but nothing stands still. If we get a conservative president, it could be prohibition times again... My point is that if you are in that business, expect those headaches. From the standpoint of the recreational/medical user, I want the price to go down. From what I can see the cartels aren't growing special tinctures for specific needs. Therefore the more tonnage they drag in here,the more the price goes down, and it has gone down. Of course, the real answer is to legalize and tax it. Have it graded, branded and available at Seven-Elevens. Use the tax money for anything but environmental/corporate degradation and armaments/war. The grading would cut down on people getting paranoid and driving impaired. I'm totally down with that scenario. If it gets to that point the cartels can become legal exporters from Mexico. They won't fight a war because the price went down. Have I missed something except the current state of anarchic affairs?

It's an interesting thought, and one that would most likely be a boon for our foreign relations. I've been pounding my fists on the table since 9/12/01 that Job Numero Uno in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave is to heal the gaping wound in NYC. Of course, it went largely ignored (except when it got mentioned in motivational speeches) during the Bush Era and seems to have been ignored again for the majority of the Obama Era. Maybe it's my bleeding heart, but is it really necessary to leave the memory of the Twin Towers just a memory? Wouldn't the best way to say, "F**k you!" to the terrorists/jihadists be to rebuild and carry on as if it was merely a scratch? I'm all for leaving other nations to deal with their own problems unless they ask us for help. Jimmy Carter is one of--if not the only--U.S. President to sit in the Oval Office and not fire a single shot, and how is he remembered? Ask any Republican, and chances are the answer you'll get is, "As a coward." But we all know the truest sign of bravery is to see how easily we can enter yet another war and decide to do the exact opposite. Sorry, I just don't think this country's ready for that...yet.

I've always said that the Bush/Cheney NeoCons (NOT America's) response to 9/11 was absolutely wrong. Prosecuting a war against two countries while prosecuting everybody in this country with the Patriot Act was not an intelligent response. Focusing on NY probably had to be done for the aspect of healing alone. BUT, we could have prosecuted the terrorists around the world with the good will of about 150 countries if we had pursued this as a police action. That is, not involved the military except for special forces ops and had the FBI and Interpol and the NSA track the bad guys. Then use the combined special forces of those countries willing (clandestinely, there were a lot of them like Poland, than nobody ever thought of) and whoop the bad guys. All of the patriotic screeching and ape-like ceremonies of a country and going to war were not needed and, as it played out, overly restrictive of our freedoms. It merely made the country feel worse and scarred a generation of vets., not to mention killed about a million people and injured about 10,000,000 more. Isolationism is a more difficult thing. It points to an extreme and extremes aren't good in foreign affairs. The world's most bad-ass military can't just do nothing when the rest of the world is waiting for a helping hand or leadership in the face of war crimes and the use of weapons of mass destruction. There is a long way between that and taking a kick-back position and not forcefully pursuing economic gain at the expense of others. I for one would like our foreign policy too have much larger tendencies towards isolationism but not become isolationist, if that makes any sense...

Mr. Speaker has vowed to hold the 2014 federal budget hostage unless the funding for the Affordable Care Act was withheld. WHAT A BONEHEAD! Please contact your rep and senator to lodge your complaint in regard to this obstructive position from the Republican members of Congress.

Should be more than ashamed of themselves. A list of of partisan obstructors should be well publicized so they can be culled from the flock next voting season. 40 votes on trying to defund the Affordable Care Act and now one more coupled to lifting the debt ceiling that isn't going to fly either. Isn't this the definition of insanity?

"Hundreds of passengers bound for Japan were stranded in Australia overnight after a snake was found on a Qantas plane at Sydney airport. Staff found the 20cm-long (eight-inch) Mandarin rat snake in the cabin before passengers boarded the Boeing 747 on Sunday. It is not clear how the snake, which poses no threat to humans, had got on the flight from Singapore. A replacement flight left for Tokyo on Monday morning." (Didn't Sammuel Jackson get rid of all those snakes after that terrible movie?

She must have been one open-minded and patient lady to put up with Neil's antics! We should all give thanks for her role as editor of collections of beat writer's correspondence and occasional photographer of Kerouac and Cassidy. Interesting that she was portrayed by Kerouac as the bourgeois one who always stayed home in "On the Road" but always was the one Cassidy kept crawling back to...

Even as I support Obama's general attitudes towards current political crises, I am struck by the imperial tone of his speech as I am now hearing it. As he goes from one global hotspot to another and utters mounds of platitudes the hypocrisy of the US's actual actions undermines his words and turns them into steaming piles. While the US has not lost all moral authority it has lost most of it, like 90%. Now Obama is saying that the danger to the world is not that America will continue to create empire, but that America will disengage after a decade of war and leave a vacuum of power. It seems to me that Dubya Bush proved that comment wrong on steroids, America leading without a whiff of consultation with any ally. The rest of the speech? Blah-blah Syria; Blah-blah Iran; Blah-blah Israel/Palestine (Sigh...)

Man, Megawolff, I drove one of those VW camper vans from the 60s around the LA basin around the turn of the millennium, even took it up north as far as Santa Cruz. It was groovy up the PCH but on the highway system in LA? A definite hazard. Not because it didn't have airbags and anti-lock brakes, but because the things are meant to go 55-60 which creates a freaking hazard these days. But 1985 was another reality...

"Two U.S. officials said the investigations into Snowden's activities confirmed that his downloading of sensitive information began at Dell. He is believed to have moved from Dell to Booz Allen with little time off in between. In February 2010, while working for Dell, Snowden wrote in an internet technology forum, Ars Technica, that he was bothered by technology companies allegedly giving the U.S. government access to private computer servers. "It really concerns me how little this sort of corporate behavior bothers those outside of technology circles," Snowden wrote under the screen name "The True HooHA." "Society really seems to have developed an unquestioning obedience towards spooky types." (Reuters) Recent revelations are that the NSA used a program called "lifesaver" to covertly copy the hard-drives of computers in the Indian Embassy/Consulate and Indian UN offices. Snowden was granted one year of asylum in Russia on 8/1/13.

"Do you like green eggs & ham?I do not like them Sam I do not like green eggs and ham. Would you like them here or there? I would not like them anywhere. I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them Sam. Would you like them in a house. Would you like them with a mouse. I do not like them in a house. I do not like them with a mouse. I do not like them here. I do not like them anywhere." Dr. Seuss' Green Eggs and Ham was read by Ted Cruz on the Senate floor last night as he attempted a one man stand-up comedy show on ObamaCare as Rome burns. This particular choice of nursery rhyme is such an obvious allegory to Green Eggs & Ham as ObamaCare, Obama as Uncle Sam and the narrator as Ted Cruz that it traverses hilarity, blasts through poignancy and settles comfortably into the Kafkaesque. And isn't that where it should be with this Congress?

Although a vast majority of Americans recently polled bummed on Obama's handling of the Syrian chemical attack, the way is paved in the Security Council for a resolution ordering the dismantling of his chemical stocks. The first condition of an inventory of those weapons was submitted within seven days, last Saturday by the outlaw regime.

Upon hearing the news of her passing like most biography information I found myself going to Wikipedia instantly. What impressed me most about her was her Academic focus. And tenaciousness to perservear..and I guess her just being able to read a social situation and know it was happening, or where it was at. In hindsight it might sound nieve or incongruous to ask 'why did she hang with Neal & Jack K'? but at least she was swift enough to realise she was among Literary social Celebs with buzz. This might not have been as obvious as you might think in the 1950's. Her's & Neals paths to adult-hood you could say were almost along different Social class paths. Very different, or more different then in common. my impression. .. On 2nd thought, it occured to me I find myself asking 'Oh, she put up with Neal or took him back after his 3 years in Calif Corrections'..but after all the charge was sale of 3 joints to the undercovers. Neal may've had his skip-out-on-rent-money ways & other preferences..but that's just a Fascist drakonian charge. More a beating. But again, she strikes me as a Renaissance woman. Smarter or more learned than Neal & just as smart as Jack. Again just tenacious. Give her a wiki

@ Anna rRxia _ To me this subject matter, discussing it..even in length I still come away feeling I've just touched the iceberg. But with myself perhaps it was loaded bringing it up; mentioning this supposed industry change interwoven or in-hand with a questionable dubious method. The questionable dubious method being the cartels introduced into the legal equation (recreation). Everything you mentioned I'm more or less in accord. Or arriving at. A Grey industry rather than a Black. Well put & yea. I feel theres' no turning back..just press on & see where trial and error goes. More pro-ponents for recreational, who vote. That'll get soundbites out of congressmen. Nail them to a position on this. -- Again tho to be honest, most likely all of this will proceed at a sloe. I don't touch the stuff (these days. I'm a geez who likes to read, so) but..you know how it is. I respect the stuff. It's a big merciless business, and it just seems like it's everywhere & nowhere. I give it validation or merit with the seeming belief that 2 draws of good sensimilia, it can really relax you. And maybe get stuff done feeling good. That's about my extent of advocacy.

The government will probably close down even as the health care exchanges open up.More people will die of car bombings in Iraq. The weather will be rather odd in some corner of the US due to global warming. The Congress will seriously contemplate the new coat of paint on the debt ceiling. (Ho-hum)

If the shutdown occurs, as I suspect it will, my wife will have to drive to her workplace and prepare for unpaid leave by updating her voice mail and turning on the "out of office" email quote ... crazy ! As a federal civil service retiree, I wonder if my pension check will land in my account tomorrow... Congressional and social security pay will continue. All this hogwash just because Republicans are determined to dispose of Obamacare as well as drag their feet on the debt ceiling. I sure hope 2014 brings us candidates who are elected to act progressively, for the people, and not for some far-right party agenda.Meanwhile, Go Tribe!!: see you in the World Series!!

The Republicans think they are preparing for the 2014 election cycle by this craziness? It costs tens of millions of dollars every time they pull this crap. Jim Boehner, the freakin' wino (not the only one in Congress) goes along with the fellas lest he lose his job. Ted Cruz seems to have already taken it from him. Mitch McConell is nowhere to be seen because his is not a mid-relief pitcher, he is a closer and will only come in to fan the last three hitters in the Senate. What crap, what hubris. No, not hubris, that is too fancy a word for what is going on here. These people (the tea-party house members and 17 ultra-conservative senators that vote with Cruz on everything) are bent on making the Obama presidency irrelevant. Not just irrelevant, but non-functional. They are stupid, egotistical racist ideologues covered in conservative clothing. Was there an idiot wind blowing during the last three election cycles? Must have been to have the current state of affairs. Good luck Grateful Ted (I wouldn't want to insult you by confusing you to Ted Cruz), I hope you and your wife get your paychecks and this whole threat about the debt ceiling too goes away!

My wife motored off to work this morning, through the fog, to receive instructions on shutting down her work station. She's not to use her "work" computer and managers are not to use their "work" cell phones, as they are property of the U.S. government. How about those Republicans refusing to back down and be a part of the game, acting with widespread futility and maybe leading us all into another real market buster??!!

Republicans are to blame. Their maddening, sheep-like bleating that this is the fault of the Obama Administration because the people are against ObamaCare (The Affordable Care Act). The latest poll (1 week ago) shows that 50% of the people DO NOT want to defund the President's signature health care act while 38% are in favor of eliminating government funds for it. 12% remain unsure. This shows that the Republicans on the extreme right have completely lost touch with reality. They are committing political suicide when everybody in their districts finally realizes they are a bunch of loonies who don't want people treated with pre-existing conditions or have insurance without lifetime caps (Oh, I'm sorry Mrs. Smith, little Jimmy has already used up his $100,000 in lifetime benefits and our company will no longer cover his totally curable cancer care.) Now the Republicans are threatening not to approve a modest increase in the debt ceiling if they do not get what they want on health care. They are threatening the full faith & credit of the United States. That is, the US will not make interest payments on Treasury Bills if the debt ceiling is not raised. That will happen some time around November 1st. The talking heads are saying that this will never happen because these are the mechanisms that force deals to happen in Washington and voices from the business world shall become very, very shrill to do something about the matter. How real is the chance of that happening? Well, US Treasury Bonds are the #1 safest investment in the world. People from all over the world RUN to put their money in T-Bills when the shit hits the fan in their own country. There is insurance called "credit derivative swaps" (sound familiar from 2008?). Well, you used to be able to get 100k in insurance through this financial instrument for 7k. Now, the same insurance as of last week cost $40,000. That is almost a six-fold rise in the cost of insuring the safest investment in the world - a US treasury Bond with historically low yields. When our creditors from well-off countries decide to raise interest rates through their actions or inaction's (of buying or not buying) they will not come down easily and will have drastic effects on our economy. All because of these tea-party idiots who want to slash government spending more than it already has been, all bankrolled by billionaires like the Koch Brothers. Unbelievable.

Let's be honest, people. As long as slanted and skewed media outlets like Fox News, MSNBC, and the rest continue to twist and contort the facts to suit their personal agendas, the American people who remain glued to their television sets each and every night won't have the slightest clue as to what's really going on. They'll be told by the talking heads that everything's okay and that the government will play together nicely while honest, hard-working people continue to struggle to make ends meet while trying to figure out how to put food on the table and pay their bills at the same time. The truth is that it's all our Congress(wo)men and Senators' fault for the shutdown, not just the Republicans. Sure, the Tea Baggers have been continually throwing gears into the machinery since the first knuckle-dragger got elected into office, but it's the responsibility of BOTH parties to keep things running smoothly regardless. I'm tired of the finger-pointing; I just hope the right people in the right positions take the time to remind the American public of what Congress and the House have done to this country: hold a gun to its head and hold it hostage.

I would agree with you in general, however, the Republicans in the Senate have perverted the rules so that everything needs a super-majority. The 60th vote in the Senate for ObamaCare (years ago when it passed) was the good Senator from Nebraska. His price, oh yes, it was good old-fashioned extortion, was that the Federal government picked up all of Nebraska's share of Medicare premiums like, forever. I would disagree that MSNBC is in any way comparable to Fox News. MSNBC has professional standards and Fox is a bunch of Nazi's. That is not just because I lean to the left. You don't see MSNBC broadcasters browbeating their guests saying "I'm in charge! I'll ask the questions here!" At MSNBC, the lesbians know they have to stay up till 9pm to see Rachel Maddow. I will say that after the Boston Terrorism incident ALL networks got the THE WORD to go easy and provide "soft, soothing entertainment to the masses" so we could all have nice, solid bowel movements while we sheltered in place. Even Rachel Maddow played the same clip of cute young marathon girls in skimpy halter tops over and over again while she giggled lasciviously. Well, I'm getting off-track here. You're right Parkas, they're all to blame. From radical right-winger Ted Cruz to Independent socialist Bernie Sanders. (All right, I'm outta here, no more rants this week!)

Most of federal government was temporary shut down.

Each time we go through this gyration it costs the taxpayers billions (a couple) of dollars.

Well, the furlough is here to stay it appears, as no progress on a clean CR has reached the Senate yet. My wife and I keep busy locally, as long distance traveling or camping is not feasible if by some miracle Congress passes the budget and the workplace reopens. Until then we'll keep encouraging our rep and Senators (R-KS) to get to work!

GTed. Better to take a short camping trip to Whichita and protest outside the Koch Brothers headquarters! Don't imagine you would get much of a reception there. If they'll spend millions fighting against somebody who sold them a fake bottle of wine, they'll make mincemeat of anybody opposing them on this issue. The Republicans are hell-bent on erasing the Obama legacy from US History. There is a very ugly hint of racism here.

Would have to be at a private campground. Looks like a stalemate at the moment (passing a bill that would open up the government is not in the cards). In fact, this looks like a perfect opportunity to do it on the taxpayer's dime, GTed. Leave this afternoon, come back Sunday night... Everybody knows that during these Congress-created fiascoes (shutdowns due to partisan issues) government furloughed workers are made whole again. Not this time. The mainline Republicans teamed up with the Tea Party are building momentum not to pay for the days government workers are missing (those deemed non-essential). The ones still working will get paid. The one's not working, well, they aren't essential -- why pay for days they missed? Have a good camping trip GTed.

5 MINUTES AGO ON THE WEST LAWN OF THE WHITE HOUSE THERE WERE THREE LARGE BOOMS AND CONGRESSIONAL POLICE ARE REPORTED TO HAVE BEEN INJURED! FURTHER REPORTS ARE THAT 15 SHOTS OR SO HAD BEEN FIRED AND CONGRESSIONAL POLICE CARS TOOK OFF IN PURSUIT OF THE BAD GUYS. A HELICOPTER HAS LANDED ON THE WEST LAWN, NEAR THE REFLECTING POOL. "IT'S A WILD THING TO SEE!" TOURISTS WERE HERDED INTO LAFAYETTE PARK AND THEN TAKEN ELSWHERE. CONGRESS IS IN RECESS AT THE MOMENT THOUGH THEY ARE IN THE CAPITOL AND IN SESSION.

Just a typical day in Washington DC that was over-reported by every major news network. The BBC interviewed many Americans who decried the militarization of the nation's, and especially the capitol's, police force. All of the shots fired are being attributed to overzealous LE. The atmosphere in the city is reported (probably over-reported) as tense amidst the 3rd day of a government shutdown.

considering. And you know this whole scenario has gone way too far into weirdness when the drum beating, war hawk John McCain actually sounds like the voice of reason for the Republican party. Thanks, John. It's nice, every so often, to be reminded that I don't necessarily need mushrooms in order to feel like I'm hallucinating :))) *** I put that picture up about two weeks ago and it finally takes?

Please shut up, Sinéad O' Connor.

Yes, Anna, the Koch conglomerate is a low-key sinister presence most notable for bank-rolling advertisements and commercials for/from right wing "public interest" groups. If I go camping, it will be in the Ozarks, possibly near Lake Tanneycomo. I hear the trout are jumping. Today is pug day: my son lets my wife and I enjoy their little ankle-biter, Homme. We take long walks and tease the heck out of him so he's worn out when we hand him back to AJ after his workday is over. Have the Republicans blinked yet?

anybody check the prices and what you get for it yet? doesn't seem very affordable to me.

With all possible credits included, such as tobacco-free and others, we are able to hold down our out-of-pocket premiums to $1935 a year for a family (2-12 people, all must be provable by birth certificates, marriage certificates, bills & leases/mortgages) A PCP (Primary Care Provider visit is a $25 co-pay; a specialist is $35; an emergency room visit is $100 the average generic prescription co-pay is $7. Knock-on-wood, we've only had one overnight hospital stay for which there was no out-of-pocket (and no procedures, just things such as saline and other medicines for food poisoning.) The Affordable care Act has 4 levels of plan that pay from almost 100% of deductibles and has high premiums to the bronze level that has lesser amounts of premiums and higher deductibles with much fewer choices -- from what I've heard. My employer has not added an extra deduction to my paycheck to pay for the ACA as some scumbag employers have done. Call me a socialist if you want, but if you're a company owner with more than 50 employees, just buy a new car every 4 years and only take 4 weeks of vacation a year and don't take an extra deduction from your employees. Just one person's opinion. Is it affordable? I guess it depends on how sick you are, how much you use your insurance and how much money you make... I hope the young and the healthy partake of the plan. Otherwise the ACA will do what is known in insurance circles as the "Death Spiral" where there aren't enough premiums to pay for the older users (which is now officially the first wave of baby-boomers starting to retire). God help us all if this doesn't work!

...deducts $60.47 {non tobacco rate} a week from my check for me and one dependent.$30 Office Visit $60 Specialist $250 Emergency Room $50 Urgent Care $10/$40 RX Tier 1/RX Tier 2 $80/25% RX Tier 3/RX Tier 4 20% Inpatient

Well, Wayne La Pierre and the NRA have outdone themselves with this one. They now somehow believe that arms control treaties are a back-door to get gun control passed at home. This kind of paranoia is clinical. Somehow the US negotiating an international arms control treaty is going to lead to a secret agenda of gun control in the US. This is truly unbelievable and irrational thinking. With each shooting the NRA becomes more and more desperate for a scapegoat to blame. Guns can never be the problem. Therefore everybody and everything else is the problem. The gun safe is the altar on which the sacred gun is kept. The acolytes bear the rags and range of gun oils and greases that eternally preserve it. In a dim room the single shaft of light illuminates the elegant lines of the handgun. Bow down before it. Wayne is watching. He has video and audio.

The one thing Congress agrees on is that the furloughed Federal workers will get their back-pay. If you didn't go camping you should have. It's not you or your wife's fault that the government is bent on going over the edge in a Thelma & Louise.

For those who might have missed it, a motorcycle race was happening on the West Side Parkway in NYC last weekend when a road rage incident started somehow. A man in an SUV ran over a biker, and then swerved and hit another and then hit another. The bikers slowed the SUV down and stopped it. Then they smashed the driver window and pulled the guy out of his vehicle and beat him in front of his wife and one year old daughter. Now we find out that at least two of the bikers were undercover cops. There is only one level of deep undercover that would have superseded their duty to stop this beating. Cops caught up in blood-lust?