Let me start with a little bit of data (pdf): Women have voted at higher rates than men in every election since 1980, and in higher numbers since 1964. We were also the driving force behind the grand Democratic takeover (pdf) that was the November ’06 election, providing "the critical margin of victory" in the Virginia, Missouri and Montana Senate races.

My point?  It's time for the Democrats to stand up for women.

Hey, Rush. Shut your fucking mouth about Elizabeth Edwards for just five minutes. There's something I want to tell you.

You don't get to sit your fat ass down in your radio studio and talk about how a woman -- any woman -- ought to react or behave when she has breast cancer. I know, I know, you think the weight of the world has been on your shoulders these last few years, what with your drug addiction and your non-functioning penis.

But you don't know shit about breast cancer, but I do. I got to watch my sister die from it.

"A credit card can be a great safety net if people know how to use it." Tracey Mills, American Bankers Association (Link)

"Payday lending technology may have lowered those fixed costs, thus increasing the supply of credit ... That suggests the payday innovation was welfare improving, not predatory." Defining and Detecting Predatory Lending, Donald P. Morgan and Samuel G. Hanson (Link)

"This [alleged bankruptcy abuse] has made credit less affordable and less accessible, especially for low-income workers who already face financial obstacles." George W. Bush, statement on enactment of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005

A few days back, Jackson Williams posted a piece at the Huffington site about Senator Biden's presidential aspirations. In it, he mentions Biden's vote in favor of the new bankruptcy law that was enacted on April 20, 2005.  He adds this:

You see, it turns out the average income of folks who file bankruptcy in this country is less than $30K; not the Burt Reynolds' type millionaires gigging the system that we all heard about when this bill was debated. Also, the vast majority of bankruptcy filers do so because of massive medical bills, a job layoff, or both. I've never filed bankruptcy, but like the man from Hope, Arkansas I am moved by those demographics. Not so our Joe, apparently, although another Democratic Joe, by the name of Lieberman, joined his Connecticut colleague Chris Dodd in voting against the bill on final passage. Honors for them (emphasis added).

Let's take a look at Lieberman's record and see if he deserves the "honors" Mr. Williams wants to give him.  (Hint: He doesn't.)

As I write this, Ohio State is about four minutes from the end of a thorough trouncing in the BCS championship game. It's a bummer, to be sure. I was born in Columbus, lived there most of my life and graduated from The Ohio State University. In other words, as the saying goes, I bleed Scarlet and Grey.

But there's a little piece of me that's glad because of the outcome.

2006 was a roller coaster ride for me personally and one casualty of everything that was going on was my ability to participate in the DKos community.  I went from commenting to lurking to complete absence and today is the first time in about two weeks that I even had internet access.

Now, I know I'm just a small cog in the wheel that is DKos, but I did want to mention a few things.

OMFG.

I just watched CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" with that stale fellow who sits in for Cooper.  One segment invovled him talking with an "expert" about the veracity of statements made in campaign ads.

OMFG.

Buffalo Springfield once sang, "There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly clear."

That's how I feel about a certain fact surrounding the recent shootings in Colorado and Pennsylvania, where girls were singled out by the gunmen.

Why girls?

CNN reports as "just in" news that Foley's attorney held a press conference this afternoon in which he said Foley had been living a double life because he's suffered from alcoholism all his adult life.  The attorney said Foley had checked himself into a rehab facility.

That's all I caught.  There will no doubt be longer, better diaries on this.  But it was breaking so I thought I'd post it, even if this diary is teetering on the rules line for being too short.

My heart is so filled with sadness. There is violence all around us. There are justifications flying about. People are dying and, in the end, they're dead. They're gone. Dead is dead.

A Muslim's child wants to play, just like a Christian's child wants to play.  Just like a lion's cub wants to play. They have no say in the circumstances of their deaths. When they're dead, they're dead. Those of us who remain living, however, will justify or demonize the fact of death.

This is a rant; follow me if you wish.

YOYO is, of course, Jared Bernstein's description of our current economic culture: You're on your own. Bernstein's is a more succinct way of saying that, under republican rule, we've adopted the philosophy of privatizing the profit and socializing this risk.

Under YOYOism, whatever economic challenges we face as a nation--globalization, health care, inequality--the best solution is for people to fend for themselves. Its central goal is to shift economic risks from the government and corporations onto individuals and their families. You can see this beneath the surface of almost every recent conservative initiative: Social Security privatization, personal accounts for health care, attacks on labor market regulations, and the perpetual crusade to slash the government's revenue through regressive tax cuts--"starving the beast"--and block the government from playing a useful role in our economic lives.

Please follow me below the fold to look at the YOYO theory and debt collection.

Today I checked my voicemail and there was a message from a debt collector. Not that I knew that from the message itself, which only said, in a pre-recorded voice, that this was "a personal business matter" or some crap like that. I knew it was a debt collector because the message was like one I had a year or so ago, the last time they had the wrong girl and it was up to me to fix their mistake.

Today I had the constant stress of dealing with a 13 year old whose defiance switch got flipped to the "on" position.

Today I had to go to work and when I came home I resumed the seemingly endless work of getting my little condo ready to sell so I can finally, after years of hard work, move into a house I like and that's right for me and that defiant 13 year old.

And today, my TU status disappeared. I'm tired, but I'll try to connect all this below.

So says US News & World Report in its June 19 edition. The report highlights many of the up-ticket candidates and notes that everything from jobs to the Iraq War to evangelism are in play. Overall, the report shows that republicans know they're in trouble and they'll (again) stop at nothing to win:

In the 15th Congressional District, centered in Columbus, Democrats may have a better shot. Incumbent Deborah Pryce, the fourth ranking Republican in the House, is facing Mary Jo Kilroy, a county commissioner. A proven vote getter and formidable fundraiser, Kilroy will most likely benefit from a decade-long exodus of conservative voters to the exurbs. That has made the increasingly suburban district more moderate. It went to Bush by less than 1 percentage point in 2004. Smelling trouble in such areas, the House GOP leadership unveiled a "suburban agenda" last month that includes plans to run background checks to weed out pedophile teachers and a pledge to tackle gang violence.

More below.

A few days back, I posted a diary that provided some background on the eight year legislative history of "bankruptcy reform." (Preliminary note: From here on out, it's "the new law" because "reform" is just too Orwellian. It usually means we fixed something that was broken.)

But that diary was all about roll call votes, bill numbers and such. This time, I'm going to explain why this new law sucks.

An abortion ban could become reality in Ohio. According to the Planned Parenthood Ohio Action Network, the Ohio House Health Committee will hold a June 13 hearing on H.B. 228, which would outlaw abortion.

More information below.

There have been a number of references to "the bankruptcy bill" here at DKos lately, with respect to both its substance and the issue of who voted for or against it.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of bad information out there. To be sure, this isn't the fault, and certainly not the intention, of any diarist or commenter. Rather, it's a reflection of the fact that outside the bankruptcy community not much is known about this new law or its history.

For example, few realize that bankruptcy reform was born in 1997, not 2005 when the new law was passed. Congress tried, and failed, to enact this so-called reform measure in four straight Congresses before it finally became law. Fewer still know that in its first go-around, the Senate passed the bill then pending by an astonishing 97 to 1 vote, with the late Paul Wellstone casting the sole vote in opposition.

So, in the spirit of aiding and abetting an informed citizenry, I offer below some essential facts about bankruptcy reform. If nothing else, you might want to put this on your hotlist for future reference.

It's no secret that Bush and his republican cabal are spying on us and that they want to collect as much information about us as they can. We don't yet know all the details on how pervasive the spying is, how much information they have, or to what purposes that information has already been put.

The whole thing can make an ordinary citizen feel pretty powerless. Obviously, we have to fight as hard as we can to get the Democrats back in control of Congress this coming November and in the White House in 2008.

But what can we do in the meantime? Find out after the flip.

Yesterday morning I read an AP story, "Senate Votes to Double Employer Fines for Illegal Immigrants," which included this:

Employers who don't use the new computerized system could be fined $200 to $600. The system would include information from the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and Homeland Security Department.

"What 'new computerized system?'" I asked myself. The article didn't explain, so I tried to find out for myself. The new system, it turns out, is the Employment Eligibility Verification System, which is intended, in part, to "respond to all inquiries ... on whether individuals are authorized to be employed and to register all times when such inquiries are not received."

At which point I asked myself, "Am I overreating, or have the neocons moved one step closer to their Big Brother dream of tracking and storing every move we make?"

More below the fold.