Daily Kos: 8th cousin

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Sunday October 28, 2012 · 6:06 PM PDT

2012/10/28 · 18:06

I'm usually pretty blase about storms -- but this one is different..and I'm panicking for a different reason than the people filling their gas tanks (done it), buying water (we're stocked) and bread (got it) ahead of Sandy.

I'm panicking about the election. Think about it: would New Orleans have been ready to vote a week after Katrina??

yes, here in my royal blue state, we have early voting. I voted yesterday --waited about an hour to do so (at the end of the day). Earlier waits were as long as two hours and today was insane... I could see the lines -- and heavy traffic heading to the polling place as I drove by. But that's just us in a heavily Democratic state.. and those of us who want to make sure our votes are banked before the election. what happens in those states that DON'T have a Democratic governor -- PA & NJ?

Infuriated

8th cousin

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Sunday October 07, 2012 · 6:26 PM PDT

2012/10/07 · 18:26

I am -- and I shouldn't be -- I am a practicing Catholic who watches the shenanigans at Mass through eyes squinted with cynicism. I know the difference between Man-made church law and God-made church law... (all but 2 are manmade)..but when my son came home from religious ed tonight - complete with flyers urging these teen-aged CHILDREN to participate in the public shaming of people at a nearby abortion clinic... I told him he should have left the flyers there... My head exploded when he told me about what was said in class. Follow me over the jump for the rest of the story.

Blue Maryland on track to stay blue

8th cousin

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Friday October 29, 2010 · 11:37 AM PDT

2010/10/29 · 11:37

In 2006, there was a poll in the last week leading to the election indicating that Then-Gov. Bob Ehrlich (R) and Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley (D) were tied. Turned out they weren't. This year, the latest poll has O'Malley up by 14 points going into the election... and in a year that's been so tough for Democrats, O'Malley's campaign has done a BRILLIANT job in showing how it's done.

O'Malley, on paper, should have been vulnerable... He raised the state sales tax for the first time in 30 years in 2007... and he also raised TOP level income taxes. But he started advertising -- EARLY -- just after the primary.... in the Washington, DC. suburbs, reminding folks he grew up there himself... and stressing the area's top priority.. schools.

that wasn't all, though.

SMALL victory

8th cousin

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Tuesday September 07, 2010 · 6:07 PM PDT

2010/09/07 · 18:07

It's short because it just got posted at the NY Times... and I saw it on DU.

The president will take a hard line on extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich.... He's decided NOT to take the advice of former budget director Peter Orszag... and he's finally doing something politically smart -- maybe a day late, but hopefully not a dollar short.. especially considering the gallup poll's news.

here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/...

I'm starting to see a pattern

8th cousin

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Monday September 06, 2010 · 10:15 AM PDT

2010/09/06 · 10:15

I've been hoping against hope now that Labor Day's here, President Obama will bring HOPE back....that he'll listen to people OTHER than the cautious "let's replay the 90's" chorus of Rahm, Robert Rubin's disciples, etc.

and I woke up to the R-&-D tax incentive for small businesses.....another half-measure that'll do nothing to put a dent in 9-point-6 unemployment before the election. and my stomach bottomed out..... and the puzzle fell into place.

funeral for a public option

8th cousin

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Tuesday September 08, 2009 · 6:28 PM PDT

2009/09/08 · 18:28

Did you see Keith tonight? he did a segment with Lawrence O'Donnell, who provided some very cogent analysis of the Nancy Pelosi squishiness on the public option.

I didn't like what he said -- I don't like his outcome... but he has a history in the Senate committees and his scenario for how it'll all turnout sounds spot-on.

Sorry I can't put it here.. I don't think the segment's up - and really, I don't know how. I know, I have to learn...

What Hath Newt Wrought

8th cousin

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Thursday September 03, 2009 · 8:08 PM PDT

2009/09/03 · 20:08

Keith Olbermann asked the question tonight... and I paraphrase, "What kind of a country have we become when a disabled woman telling her story is heckled at a townhall meeting?" Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome to Newt Gingrich's America. It's a very scary place and....

it's at his doorstep. HE was the one who let the crazy genie out of the bottle some 20 years ago when he was a bomb-throwing back-bencher in Congress. He used to make those speeches on the empty floor of the house ranting and raving. Newt was crazy like a fox. He did it to get on C-span because local TV would pick up the sound-bite. He knew Republicans couldn't win on the merits of their ideas.. that had all been decided during FDR and LBJ's eras. So political guerrilla theater would have to do the job instead, Newt in Congress, Rush on the radio.

here's my health care story

8th cousin

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Tuesday August 18, 2009 · 11:35 AM PDT

2009/08/18 · 11:35

I can't call it a horror story -- because it happened 14 years ago... and because of luck in a couple of places. Maybe I can call it my-there-but-for-the-grace-of-God story.

My dad was diagnosed with lung cancer in March of 1995. At the time, he worked for a world-wide non-profit... and had a strict PPO health plan. His primary physician sent him to a pulmonologist.. who sent him to a thoracic surgeon. All this took time.. a month had lapsed by the time he had his biopsy -- and he watched the coverage of the Oklahoma city bombing in pre-op before his lobectomy.

The surgery determined his cancer had spread to lymph nodes.. and it was a fast growing cancer. Nonetheless, it took another month to start radiation and chemo,(in part because of complications that grew out of his hospital care... a religious - sect run hospital.. it was cutting back as much as it could.) First, of course, he had to see an oncologist. His doctors recommended one of the area's best. But he wasn't on Dad's plan. The doctors said,"We're gonna set you up with him anyway" My parents said, "but we can't pay the part insurance won't."

follow me over the jump....

They've already killed the economy..

8th cousin

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Wednesday June 03, 2009 · 3:58 PM PDT

2009/06/03 · 15:58

Now, the oil barons are trying it again. Though I studied economics in college, it was so long ago that it was all theory-- no econometrics. Therefore, I offer my apologies to Bonddad and Jerome a Paris for my theories... I have no stats to back them up.

I just know that the energy de-regulation itch reached its apex in 1999.. I mean who EVER thought people would buy the BS about lifting regulation resulting in lower bills? Don't people have cable?

But, electric utilities were set free of regulation in pricing for the first time in nearly 70 years.....

Why We Need to Make Something

8th cousin

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Monday March 30, 2009 · 6:07 PM PDT

2009/03/30 · 18:07

America doesn't manufacture much anymore.

We all know and have lamented the outsourcing of our jobs... Over the years, in part, because of NAFTA, employers, in search of larger profit margins, have sent their manufacturing jobs overseas in ever greater numbers.

It started with Big Steel. Reagan outsourced that back in the 80s -- allowed it to happen, if you prefer (I don't). And all the while we've been told, it's the unions' fault... American workers make too much money. In fact, a few years ago, a story in the WaPo business section actually "lifted" a quote from some Wall St. type (I can't remember titles or many of the details -- only the gist) about how Americans are going to have to get used to a lower standard of living.

Join me after the jump:

The stimulus is working already!

8th cousin

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Tuesday February 17, 2009 · 7:31 PM PST

2009/02/17 · 19:31

Not kidding. There's the provision in the just-signed stimulus bill that allows you to take state sales tax off your income tax -- if you buy a car. (Thanks, Sen. Mikulski! I'm told she slipped it into the bill.)

That prompted my husband to get serious about replacing his 9 year old GM sedan. He says it's the best car he's ever had -- all he's had to do to it is change the oil and slap new tires on it.. but now, the transmission is acting up, so the conversations we've had recently about what the next car would look like have gotten past the research stage.

And we're apparently not the only ones. He toured four or five dealerships after work today -- and was told at more than one that the President's Day holiday was a good one.

Spontaneous Celebrating in the Nation's Capital

8th cousin

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Tuesday November 04, 2008 · 11:16 PM PST

2008/11/04 · 23:16

There is dancing in the streets tonight in Washington DC... both official DC and Local.

When the nets called it for Obama at 11pm EST (poll closing time on the West Coast), people poured into Lafayette Square -- across from the White House.... they poured out of Georgetown bars... and they poured (most fittingly) nto the streets of what used to be the heart of the black business district... which was gutted by the rioting 40 years ago that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

I work in news in DC... and I was working tonight - so I can confirm all this. You want to know what this election means? It's dancing in the streets in a city that takes pride in its cynicism. After all, administrations come and go, but bureacracy doesn't change.

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