I had a "Calgon, take me away!" kind of day, but no Calgon was forthcoming. POO!
Anyway, let's get historical for previous February 9ths. On this date in 1964, the Beatles made their first live American TV appearance, on The Ed Sullivan Show. Word has it that if David Letterman listens very closely, he can still hear the echo of all them screaming girls - HA!
There are also a couple of kewl birthdays to celebrate. Mia Farrow is 67. I wonder if she'll get anything from Woody Allen? ;D I'M KIDDING! She's quite a humanitarian & does a lot of good work in places where most of us would $hit a brick if we had to go there. Joe Pesci is 69 today! I would REALLY like for him to show up at CPAC & break into this speech. ;D
On with The Rachel Maddow Show!
"There's a Rhythm to This Method" - There are Senator McCentury & $aint $arah from Wasilla first being for cap & trade then against cap & trade. There's Rep. Sobber sobbing for a bank bailout on the House floor. There's Speaker Sobber dissing bailouts. Senator Grassley used to like individual mandates for health insurance. Senator Grassley now does not like individual mandates for health insurance. Are y'all detecting a trend here?! The modern GOBP just loves to change on a dime. It's a wonder they don't like Mittens more! A group of students & others from Catholic universities had a get - together today to talk contraceptives & health insurance coverage. Guess what? Lots of Catholic universities & law schools already include contraceptives in their health care coverage! In 8 of the 28 states who already allow for contraceptives in health insurance, churches aren't even exempted. HELLO?! Wow...And, I'd be willing to wager that GOBP Congress critters from those 8 states are braying about President Obama's war on religion. Rachel played the Cal Thomas contraception clip! A$$ hat... I could make those contraception comments about the "people" on that stage & those in the audience who thought what he said was damn funny. Rep. Jan Schakowsky gets war on women duty. Birth control needs to be defending in the 21st century. Yea...lovely. Remember, we're talking hospitals, universities, etc., too in addition to churches. If this policy was read & sermoned about during Sunday masses, those churches should have their tax exempt status yanked. After the jobs numbers came out, the GOBP decided to bring back the culture wars. THAT makes sense!
"Resident of the United States" - Big tobacco was made by our government to pay for some powerful anti - tobacco ads because they were crooks & was part of that big 'ol settlement in 1998. Today's settlement was bigger against the mortgage industry, but I'm afraid it won't help nearly as many people. The total amount of the settlement is $25 billion. The mortgage industry might have to pay some more depending on results from continuing investigations. I hope today IS just "step one." NY AG Eric Schneiderman's in studio to talk about today's settlement. Big banks wanted a general release of responsibility for EVERYTHING they'd done. AG Schneiderman called today "a down payment." State & federal agencies have been enjoined for investigations for what led up to the meltdown to begin with. No criminal liability was given up, and no individual homeowners are barred from suing banks. Well, THAT'S pretty cool! All this didn't happen before because Occupy hadn't happened yet.
"Heroes Welcome" - No one's officially won the Korean War; technically, we are still at war with them. AND, I KNEW that even before Rachel said it because I'm an ACTUAL HISTORIAN. Those soldiers got lots of parades when they came home. There was ANOTHER parade in 1991. We welcomed Vietnam vets in 1985 - 10 years after Vietnam ended. Charlie Dooley presented the official certificate for the St. Louis parade for Iraq vets; he's a Vietnam vet. The biggest concern is whether there would be a crowd since the parade was put together so quickly; 100K people were there. :) Older veterans participated in the St. Louis parade, too.
Marriage equality's on the way in WA! A WA state rep, Maureen Walsh, made a hell of a speech, and she's REPUBLICAN. Her daughter is gay.