Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Sens. Max Baucus, Kent Conrad, Blanche Lincoln, Bill Nelson, & Tom Carper Are Shills For The Health Insurance Industry

I know we wanted more transparency in government, but this is ridiculous.

Yesterday in the Senate Finance Committtee Democratic Senators Max Baucus, Kent Conrad, Blanche Lincoln, Bill Nelson, and Tom Carper all voted against Sen. Rockefeller's "public option" amendment to health care reform.

Don't the "fearful five" know that the American people can see right through them?

This group of Senators don't care one iota for the health and well-being of their constituents. All they care about is the health and well-being of their health insurance industry campaign donors, and the health and well-being of their own pocketbooks.

Monday, September 28, 2009

A Revamped Website

Recently, I took down my old website and put up a new one in its place. Check it out when you get a chance. I did it myself. http://www.joshhaden.com.

Republicans Are Hijacking Patriotism From The Patriotic, And Democrats Are Letting Them Get Away With It.

We all know that Republicans will lie, cheat, and steal to get what they want.

Its not that Republicans don't know lying, cheating, and stealing are wrong; its that, in their view, lying, cheating, and stealing are justified if it results in them retaining their power, or, even better, broadening it. Doing so, in their eyes, better secures our "free" society.

Republicans believe that, since man is inherently evil, its better to enslave the (evil) majority to ensure that the good who can rule best (Republicans) are able to survive. This signals a major difference, some would say, the major difference, between the worldview of Democrats, who believe that man is inherently good, and that the enslavement of anyone, even Republicans, does nothing to promote the goal of a peaceful and sustainable world.

So, everyone, including Republicans, know that Republicans are liars, cheaters, and stealers, and know that Republicans are able to justify this fact to themselves by convincing themselves the end justifies the means. This shouldn't be surprising to anyone.

When Sen. Lindsay Graham goes on national television and says that "Americans don't support Obama's healthcare proposals," I know exactly what he's saying.

He's not saying that all Americans oppose Obama's healthcare proposals. He knows the majority of Americans actually support Obama's healthcare proposals. However, by saying "Americans don't support Obama's healthcare proposals" he's achieving the dual result of accusing those who do support Obama's healthcare proposals of being un-American, and thus, unpatriotic; and, on the other hand, helping to create, or insinuate, an anti-Obama healthcare plan atmosphere in general, hopefully inculcating in the minds of those who may be on the fence about Obama's healthcare proposals that they should be against them after all, because anything else would be un-American, and thus, unpatriotic. Sen. Lindsay Graham, is, after all, a Republican, all-knowing and all-powerful.

I would just like to say that I support Obama's healthcare plan if it contains language permitting free universal healthcare, and I'm an American. So I just proved Sen. Lindsay Graham wrong. I'm an American, and I support Obama.

Will someone please explain to me what is so American about letting a human being die because they don't have access to healthcare?

Will someone please explain to me what is so American about caring more for the survival of health insurance companies than the survival of human beings?

Will someone please explain to me what is so un-American about believing that America should care about the well-being of all its citizens, not just some of them? That if one human being suffers, then we all suffer?

Will someone please explain to me what is so un-American about the belief that every American should have access to healthcare, even if they don't have the money to pay for it?

Feel free to respond, especially you anonymous Republicans out there! :) Hint: democracy and capitalism are not the same thing.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Spain 7" Release Date & A Gig


Our good friends at Acuarela Discos will be releasing Spain's new 7" "I'm Still Free" b/w "Hang Your Head Down Low" on Dec. 15, 2009.

To celebrate we'll be playing at Spaceland in Los Angeles on Dec. 19. Hope you can make it!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Conservatives Say It's Their Turn For Empowerment?

I suppose it remains to be seen if Rep. Joe Wilson's "emotional" heckling of the President, and the conservative opposition to real health care reform, is rooted in racism (also, here), but nobody, conservatives and Republicans (is there a difference?) included, can deny that the conservative movement and the Republican worldview in general is historically rooted in the racism, sexism, homophobia, bigotry, intolerance, and hatred of anyone who thinks and/or looks different than they do, experienced in America during the last 200+ years.


Conservative Americans have a lot to thank American liberals for, but when it comes to defending their stance against many of President Obama's ideas, conservatives will always have to contend with the history of intolerance perpetuated, historically, by themselves.


Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Sen. Max Baucus Is A Shill For The Health Insurance Industry


Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., speaks with the press following a meeting on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009, in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari) from huffington post.

Today Sen. Max Baucus "finally" unveiled his "groundbreaking" health insurance reform proposals, which in actuality would reform nothing, and would leave the health insurance companies much richer and more powerful than ever.

Interesting to note that, according to the Max Baucus page on opensecrets.org, amongst Baucus' top 20 campaign contributors are Schering-Plough Corp, Aetna Inc, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, & Wyeth.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Shills For The Wealthy March On Washington


Demonstrators

Demonstrators are shown during a rally at Freedom Plaza in Washington. (Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press / September 12) from L.A. Times.

This weekend, the racist, the bigoted, the homophobic, the selfish, the self-centered, the narcissistic, the greedy, the two-faced, the cowardly, the unforgiving, the unreasonable, the unfaithful, the hypocritical, the hateful, the close-minded, the narrow-minded, the tea-bagged, the frightened of change, the proud sponsors of the status quo, conservatives, Republicans alike, all came together at our nation's capital to heckle a resounding "YOU LIE!"

I know, they "just let their emotions get the best of them." They are so sensitive!

I saw some footage of the "Taxpayer March On D.C." on C-SPAN and watched an interview with a man holding a "McCarthy Was Right" sign. Do you see where this "revolt" is going? Backwards in time, to the good old days, when men were men, women washed the dishes, peoples' lives were destroyed for their political beliefs, and anyone who looked different got their heads bashed in or were found in the morning hanging from a tree limb.

I love the line in this MSNBC article: "Many protesters said they paid their own way to the event — an ethic they believe should be applied to the government." Um, how else would they get to the event? I wonder how many of these "protestors" are bankrolled by the health industries, oil industries, and any other industry that stands to lose money and power if some of Obama's ideas are enacted.

Now, I'm not shilling for Obama. However, I don't think for a minute that any of these people care about the well-being of all Americans, some Americans, maybe. Anyone who doesn't think like they do are unpatriotic and not worth consideration at a hospital, much less as a human being.

Is this the kind of future that Jesus envisioned?

I saw a Republican Senator on TV yesterday saying that Republicans, unlike many Democrats, don't want to solve the health care problem "from the top down, but from the ground up." Republicans, says this Senator, want many of the same things Democrats do, for example, an end to many of the most heinous health insurance practices which unfairly deny people care.

I love this Senator's timing. Do you think we would see any change whatsoever in our healthcare system if Obama hadn't been elected? These "protestors" are running scared, as they always do, from anything that veers away from the status quo. They want money to stay concentrated with the wealthiest, the poor to stay in their place, and the middle-class to stay ignorant, uneducated, and complacent, and they'll say or do anything, even lie to themselves, to make sure things stay the way they are.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Michael D. Duvall, Heidi DeJong Barsuglia, And The Politics Of Lobbying Energetically For Energy Reform

From OC Weekly:

OC Assemblyman In Bed With Lobbyist . . . No, Literally In Bed By R. Scott Moxley

ViceChairUtil.jpg
Duvall ran from reporters today in the capitol

SACRAMENTO--Freshmen legislators arriving in Sacramento receive advice from veteran
 politicians about the intricacies of working in California's capital. One of those tips is to remember that microphones broadcasting legislative debates can also capture embarrassing, career-ending personal admissions if a politician isn't careful. Michael D. Duvall, Orange County's 72nd Assembly
District representative, must have forgotten the warning.

In July--two days after Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Republican leader Sam Blakeslee put Duvall on the Rules Committee that oversees member ethics--the second-term, conservative, Republican assemblyman sat in a public hearing and vividly described lewd details about his trysts with a female lobbyist whose clients had business before another committee on which
 Duvall sits.


Duvall, speaking to a relatively mum Republican colleague seated to his left, apparently had no idea his dais microphone became live beginning about a minute before the start of a cable-televised committee hearing. He was captured in the middle of recounting portions of an affair.


"She wears little eye-patch underwear," said Duvall, who is married with two children. "So, the other day she came here with her underwear, Thursday. And
 so, we had made love Wednesday--a lot! And so she'll, she's all, 'I am going 
up and down the stairs, and you're dripping out of me!' So messy!"

That line may quickly become part of colorful Sacramento political lore. In the meantime, it leads me to a question: Can someone please buy the assemblyman a box of condoms?


Duvall--who was twice a president of the Yorba Linda Chamber of Commerce, served two terms as mayor of Yorba Linda before entering the assembly in
 2006, and is the owner of an insurance agency--continues his tale: "So, I am getting into spanking her. Yeah, I like it. I like spanking her. She goes, 'I know you like spanking me.' I said, 'Yeah! Because you're such a bad girl!'"

He then laughed.


The assemblyman representing Anaheim, Fullerton, Placentia, Orange, Brea, La
 Habra and Yorba Linda then offered clues to the identity of his sex partner.


"And so her birthday was Monday," he said at the Wednesday, July 8 committee hearing. "I was 54 on June 14, so for a month, she was 19 years younger than 
me. I said, 'Now, you're getting old. I am going to have to trade you in.' And she goes, '[I'm] 36.' She is 18 years younger than me. And so I keep
 teasing her, and she goes, 'I know you French men. You divide your age by 
two and add seven, and if you're older than that, you dump us.'"

According to voter-registration records reviewed by the Weekly, veteran Sacramento-based lobbyist Heidi DeJong Barsuglia turned 36 years old on Monday, July 6.

Legislative sources say they have witnessed Duvall, who is vice chairman of 
the Assembly's powerful Committee on Utilities & Commerce, socializing after-hours with Barsuglia. Sources--who asked for anonymity because of 
Duvall's power in the capital--say Susan Duvall usually stays in Orange
 County during the week, when her husband flies to Sacramento. They also say 
they have seen Duvall with Barsuglia in restaurants, "arm-in-arm" at political fund-raising events and even shopping together for groceries just blocks from the capitol building.


"Their relationship is the worst-kept secret in Sacramento," a capitol staffer recently told me. "He's old and fat. She's hot, blonde and about 20
 years younger. He could have never gotten a woman like that before he got
 this job.'"

In April--two months after Duvall became vice chairman of the Utilities & 
Commerce committee--privately owned California utility giant Sempra Energy hired Barsuglia as one of its top lobbyists, according to Secretary of State
 records.
 Barsuglia, who has a law degree and once worked as a speechwriter for
 Governor Pete Wilson, had previously worked at the California Retailers 
Association (CRA). During 25 months of work at CRA, she reported that she incurred no reportable lobbying expenses. She joined Sempra after the 
departure of another lobbyist: David Hayes, who was named deputy director of the Interior Department by President Barack Obama.
 The San Diego-based utility conglomerate isn't shy about lobbying
 lawmakers for favorable treatment. This session, they gave Duvall $1,500 in campaign contributions. In May, the assemblyman officially adopted the company's negative view on Assembly Bill 64, which proposes increasing the percentage of electricity the utilities must procure from environmentally
 sensitive sources.


Repeatedly asked to explain his recorded sexual boasting, a red-faced Duvall fled me and another reporter, Dave Lopez of KCBS in Los Angeles, three times this afternoon in capitol hallways. He also ignored three handwritten interview requests that were delivered to him on the floor of the assembly. Said one assembly employee who witnessed the scene, "It definitely looks like he is afraid of you guys."

Barsuglia did not responded to a request for an interview made at Sempra's offices located across the street from the capitol building.

Sempra's 2008-2009 "Code of Business Conduct" states, "We've built [the company's] rich tradition because of the emphasis we place on ethical business conduct and compliance with the laws and regulations that govern
our business. We don't compromise on either for the sake of success"

But Duvall wasn't content to just share one adulterous tale at the July 8 committee hearing. He referenced a second, simultaneous affair with another woman. He seemed amused that he was cheating on both his wife and a mistress.

"Oh, yeah, Sher, Shar, Shar," Duvall said. "Oh, she is hot! I talked to her yesterday. She goes, 'So are we finished?' I go, 'No, we're not finished.' I go, 'You know about the other one [Barsuglia], but she doesn't know about you!'"

The assemblyman punctuated his observation with laughter.


During his political career, Duvall has unabashedly espoused conservative
 principles and is known as a partisan Republican with a knack for theatrics:
 He has noisily driven his Harley-Davidson motorcycle to functions. In 2008, 
Duvall blasted efforts to condone gay marriage. Legislatively, he has 
proposed bills to aid the insurance industry and government contractors 
feeding off the state's massive transportation kitty.
 He has offered a law to alter the First Amendment rights of Americans by
 banning anti-war activists from putting the names of fallen soldiers on 
T-shirts with messages such as "Bush lied" on the front and "They died" on the back; he observed that the dead soldiers fought to protect freedom, and "opportunists" should not be allowed to "exploit" the sacrifices with political messages opposing war.


Such thinking impressed certain constituencies. Earlier this year, the man who never graduated from high school received "100 percent" approval scores 
by the California Republican Assembly, the state's leading conservative outfit, and the Capitol Resource Institute (CRI), a fierce guardian of traditional family values.


"Assemblyman Duvall has been a consistent trooper for the conservative causes," CRI president Karen England announced in March. "For the last two years, he has voted time and time again to protect and preserve family values in California. We are grateful for his support of California
 families.'"

Acknowledging the CRI award, Duvall observed in a press release that as long as he is in office, he would work to protect "California families" from "constant assault in Sacramento."

rscottmoxley@ocweekly.com

Obama Never Wanted Universal Healthcare In The First Place

First it was called universal healthcare, then "single payer system", then a "public option", now the "public option" apparantly is barely even an option.

I think its important for everybody, especially Democrats, and especially everyone who voted for him, to know that Obama never supported universal healthcare in the first place. If he had he wouldn't be giving up on it so easily.

Republicans and Democrats are too beholden to the health insurance scam's...urm...industry's money for any true "change" to come about.

Its important for everyone to realize that all those highly upset and passionate folks at these public forums who are taking up arms against what they see as death panels, torts, brainwashing, socialism, and fascism are not speaking from their hearts. They are bought and paid for by a very defensive health insurance industry that is very, very protective of its mass quantities of wealth, a cache of cash that now looks to get even larger without a "public option" being available.

The health of U.S. citizens will continue to be linked first to monetary profit and least to true concern for the well-being of people created equally under God.

I was watching one of these health-care town hall meetings on T.V. last week and one of these birther anti- health reform/fascist/socialist/death panel/brainwashing/abortion/choice of doctor pro- tort reform people declared "I'm not evil!"

If she wasn't so evil to begin with why did she feel the need to assure everyone of her lack of evil-ness? Methinks you protest too much.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Republicans Are Minions Of Satan

Having a little trouble sleeping tonight and this thought just occured to me, I think its quite brilliant. Shared it on my facebook page and now I bring it to you in all its glory:


I suppose it remains to be seen if Obama is Hitler and Democrats are actually socialists, but i think Republicans should start owning up to who they really are - minions of Satan.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Mayor Villaraigosa Is An Asshole!

OK...so...six LAUSD school board members, with the backing of Mayor Villaraigosa voted to, in the name of "reform", sell 250 L.A. schools to the highest "non-profit" bidders. Wouldn't real reform be addressing the problems within LAUSD itself to allow it to do the job its supposed to do? Would that be too difficult? Or expensive? Would it entail completely changing the political culture of corruption in this city? Villaraigosa prefers things status quo, so his friends, family members, and financial backers can keep their jobs. What gets me most is that he calls this "change", a la Obama style. And the people of L.A. believe him, or maybe they just don't care. Anyways, throwing nickels and dimes to fix a very expensive (and essential, as this is the education of L.A.'s future generations we're talking about here) problem, and in so doing shifting responsibility for fixing the problem elsewhere, seems more Villaraigosa and the school board's style.

As an addendum, isn't this what Republicans have been trying to do in this city for years? Last time I checked Villaraigosa was a Democrat! Shouldn't he be switching parties? It just boggles my mind.