October 17, 2012

I am feeling SO much better today

It started with being able to attend the rally in Chapel Hill with Michelle:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251146522

Nothing could have been better--unless perhaps POTUS himself had walked out on the stage--
but that wasn't going to happen.

Then the debate. Oh, my. I had the good fortune to miss the first presidential debate--having
made a conscious decision that I would not risk the good feeling from seeing Kathleen Turner
channel Molly Ivins in "Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins" in DC--in order
to catch the end of that debate. Boy, did that ever turn out to be the right choice.

And to go from hearing Michelle--she's an incredible speaker in her own right--to seeing the
President kick some ass last night? Well, I woke up feeling a lot more optimistic this morning.

And, I kicked in another donation to the campaign.

If you can contribute--even $5.00-- do it. Let's finally kick Romney to the curb!

October 17, 2012

My hunch is correct. Sold in 2010. Here's a link.

http://writerdeb.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/editor-publisher-sold-to-duncan-mcinto/

October 16, 2012

First Lady Michelle Obama today in Chapel Hill!

I had a ticket to attend a grassroots campaign event featuring Michelle!!! today at UNC-Chapel Hill.
It was held at Carmichael Arena on campus--holds 8000--and it was packed! I stood in line starting
at 9:20 a.m. for doors to open at 11:00 a.m. We went through airport type security--and I was wanded.
LOTS of Secret Service in evidence.

Here are photos!

Outside on a beautiful fall day looking at Carmichael

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Several photos of waiting for the event--we had a band

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NC Early Vote--starts Thursday, Oct. 18th

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Can you imagine being a student and getting to introduce Michelle?!?

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OK--this is what you want--photos of Michelle! (And yes, several people yelled out, "we love you, Michelle"

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Yeah, that's Secret Service to the right and behind her--they were all over the arena!

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Our marching orders? Barack Obama won NC in 2008 by an average of 5 votes per precinct. Yes.
Your VOTE COUNTS! We were all challenged to go out and work for those 5 extra votes!

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And finally, the motorcycle escort waiting for her outside the arena

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The First Lady gave a terrific speech. She talked about Barack Obama--the man--the President--
his record--how elections are about moving forward--and she had us all fired up and ready to go!

October 9, 2012

Who'd have thought that President Obama would be in agreement with Newt Gingrich?

Gingrich: ‘You Cannot Debate Somebody Who Is Dishonest’

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/gingrich-you-cannot-debate-somebody-who-is-dishonest/

It's interesting that Gingrich describes his reaction in the same way, with some of the same body language
that President Obama displayed. Turning away and not looking at someone whose behavior is shameful
may be an instinctive response--according to some scientists who study behavior.



"Romney's performance was one that's probably unprecedented in its dishonesty," senior adviser David Plouffe told reporters.

<snip>

The president opted against "serial fact-checking with Governor Romney, which can be a never-ending, exhausting pursuit," Axelrod said. "Obviously, going forward, we're going to have to look at this, and we're going to have make some adjustments."

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/04/politics/debate-main/index.html

October 8, 2012

Finally had enough

and decided to take on the haters.

I posted this thread originally about responding to a woman I know who started
a thread on another website because she was truly struggling with the choice
of where to cast her vote: Obama or Romney. Although she lives in Utah and
knows her vote is meaningless, it was important to her:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251124997

Well, you can imagine some of the snark that ensued. These are right wing haters.
They don't discuss issues...they hurl insults.

I debated with myself whether to ignore the snark...and I did for a few days. But the more
I thought about it the more angry I got. So, in response to this comment from a very respected
member of that site,

Am I the only one thinking that republicansforobama.org may be the only website with less members than mothersforsusansmithandandreayates.com?


I posted this:


LOL. Actually, if you compare the numbers of the respective fb pages:

Republicans for Obama: 23,294.
https://www.facebook.com/Republicans...ref=ts&fref=ts


Democrats for Romney: 1,453.
https://www.facebook.com/DemocratsFo...ref=ts&fref=ts

Looks like Republicans choose the other guy as opposed to Dems--at least on fb--at the rate of 16:1. Not too shabby.

Couldn't find anybody to support a website for mothers who murder their children. What a snotty response. Too afraid to argue issues?

However, perhaps you would find this article of interest.
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/arti...ticleID=177747

The abstract indicates "Maternal filicide, or child murder by mothers, occurs more frequently in the United States than in other developed nations."

Oh, boy, another wonderful indicator of the US leading the world. Hmm...wonder if it could possibly have anything to do with the availability
of health care?!? Oh, well, good for a joke, who cares? Right?

At least you can support an animal abusing, bullying, lying, money loving guy with so much class that he will shamelessly lie--repeatedly--to the face of the President of the United States. What a guy!


And to the person who made this comment:

Figured out why libs don't care about fiscal responsibility. According to Krugman, just print more $. As some pundit I was listening to last night explained it, he was a life long liberal Dem until he learned about basic economics He now is right leaning Rep



I posted this:

Oh, boy, go with the guy who learned 'basic' economics vs the Nobel Prize Winner (2008) in Economics. What a great idea!

October 7, 2012

Funniest comment I've seen regarding the debate performance...

On another site where right wingers abound (it's a weight loss program) one of the
people I know fairly well put up a thread about the Presidential Debate because
she's truly ambivalent about her choice for POTUS. She recognizes, as a resident
of Utah, that her vote for POTUS doesn't really count, but it's important to her.
She's an out lesbian with a Mormon family. She says she's a Democrat...but
she worked for a defense contractor for many years and got a very close up
look at 'government waste'. Hmm...

Sensing her ambivalence, I put up a post regarding issues, looking at it from
the perspective of Republicans for Obama. I used the info from this thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=123141
and later referred to http://www.republicansforobama.org/

Major snark ensued from other people on the website!!! Not a surprise!


So, then I decided this a.m. to challenge her assertion
that "Romney is a good man". I disputed it based on:

he's an animal abuser;
he's a bully;
he's a liar;
he's all about the money without regard to how he gets it or who gets hurt in the process.

I provided links for everything. In fact, here's my
post from this a.m.:

Wow. Initially, I decided to stay away from this, but after trying to focus my comments on issues rather than personality while addressing M's clear ambivalence, and seeing the snark that erupted from doing so, I'm going to question the assumption that Romney is a good man.

What is good? What unbalances the scale from all the good things that a person does to the not-so-good things that the same person does?

M states that she believes Romney is a good man. I don't come to the same conclusion. Why? Here's my list:

--He is an animal abuser. And for those who like to play snarky, check out
http://www.dogsagainstromney.com/

--He is a bully. I do not write off his 'pranks'-- that included holding down a gay man and cutting his hair--as meaningless. It says something about his character. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blog...ney-bully.html

--He is a liar. There are so many documented instances of this that I won't list any links. Just google his name and liar. Many will say all politicians lie. They definitely all make promises--some of which turn out to be very difficult to keep. Did they intend to keep them? Did they change their mind along the way? Sure, there's nuance to whether a promise not kept is a lie. Again, take the whole history of the person and look to see whether the lies form a pattern across all areas of life.

--Money is everything to the man. It's all about money, no matter how he gets it or who is hurt by his actions. This is the story of Bain Capital. http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...pital-20120829

I was a reluctant supporter of Obama in 2008. I'm such a flaming lefty that Obama was much too far to the right of center for my liking. I grew up with Republican parents--Reagan Republicans--and my brother is a staunch Republican. I understand Eisenhower Republicans: remember he was the one who warned of the military-industrial complex. For all the discussion on this thread about cutting the budget, you have to ask, where are you going to make those cuts? There hasn't been ONE word in this thread about touching the defense budget--which is among the categories where significant cuts can be made to discretionary spending. It has to be on the table--because if the US wants to go to war it has to pay for it. Whining about insufficient tax breaks for the richest among us--who DON'T send their kids off to be maimed and die for us--while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer is going to push this country to the brink of civil unrest. Countries that have huge gaps in inequality tend to not do well.
http://www.theatlantic.com/internati...ality/245315/#
And that is where the US is headed unless/until the people of this country wake up and insist that their elected representatives start working together. The Republicans made it their primary goal to obstruct during President Obama's first term--they even said it out loud!--and that behavior has to stop. https://bangordailynews.com/2012/05/...ling-congress/
President Obama has shown a willingness to negotiate with anyone--on anything--who would come to the table. It's time to get over our differences and work towards common goals.



OMG. After that, the right wingers went bonkers!

But, here comes the punch line. I just checked the thread and one of other lefties posted this:

What stuck out most for me was the Big Bird statement. For me it summarized what I don't like about the Republican challenger. He doesn't get what's important to the average US person. Funding for Big Bird by the gov't is miniscule and the stats are there to show the positive effect of Sesame Street on early and later education. But he would keep tax breaks (aka corporation welfare) to oil companies.

But what made me laugh is the goal comparison of first time candidate Obama vs first time Romney. It shows how far we have come.

Obama 2008: I will get Bin Laden
Romney 2012: I will get Big Bird


That is just too funny!!!

October 6, 2012

What is happening with gas prices? Check out the national map

http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_gastemperaturemap.aspx

I am amazed to see the high prices along the entire west coast.

Has there been pipeline disruption?

I was in DC on Wednesday to see Kathleen Turner in "Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins".
It was superb. Driving home to Chapel Hill, I filled up with $3.80/gal for premium--which was about $.32
LESS per gallon than I had paid earlier in the week in anticipation of the drive from NC to DC.

Am I missing something regarding oil distribution that's been in the news?

October 4, 2012

I was in DC last night--did NOT watch the debate--saw Molly Ivins

as channeled by Kathleen Turner in "Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins"


The play was FABULOUS. It is mostly sold out, but if you are in DC and can score a single
ticket: GO!

I took the metro back from the theatre (Arena Stage at Waterfront metro stop) to my
hotel near DuPont Circle. Walking up Connecticut Avenue, I passed restaurant/bar after
restaurant/bar and ALL the TV's were tuned to the debate. I decided when I got to
the hotel--about 9:45--that I was not going to ruin the feeling of a wonderful night
at the theatre with a gem of a journalist as portrayed by a marvelous actor by turning on the last
minutes of the debate.

This morning, I turned on Morning Joe. OMG. I began to discover how Mitt lied his way
through the debate--with some super-majority after poll claiming he had won--
and realized President Obama got stuck with the strategy of how to debate a liar.

Why wasn't he prepped for that? Or, is it a rope-a-dope strategy--letting Romney
think he's winning--with a plan to come back in a later round and knock Romney out?

As I was driving home from DC today, I thought I hope people are smart enough
to realize that an animal abusing, bullying, lying, flip flopper is not who we want
as President of the United States. I only hope people will remember to watch what
politicians do--not what they say--to figure out the character of a person.

Oh, and btw? Guess what was in a bureau drawer of my hotel room? The Book of Mormon!!!!
Not just a copy of the Bible (it was there, too). Has any one else seen a Book of Mormon
in a hotel room? Creeped me out. I almost swiped it!!!!

September 30, 2012

I'll go one better--full moon photo

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September 30, 2012

Had my LTTE published re: single payer health care!

Last Sunday the Raleigh News Observer ran a BIG front page expose on the markup
charged by local non-profit hospitals for cancer drugs.




Large nonprofit hospitals in North Carolina are dramatically inflating prices on chemotherapy drugs at a time when they are cornering more of the market on cancer care, an investigation by The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer has found.

The newspapers found that hospitals routinely mark up prices on cancer drugs two to 10 times or more over cost. In some cases, the markup is far higher.

The total annual cost of cancer drugs for a single patient can easily top $100,000. Such costs have proved financially devastating to some and, according to national studies, have caused a significant number to put off needed treatments.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/09/22/2361661/nc-nonprofit-hospitals-make-big.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy


Here's my letter (although it was edited to eliminate my opening sentence: " So what?"




Look at single-payer

Your Sept. 23 front-page article “Hospitals make big money on cancer drug markups” is incomplete without comparison to the cost of cancer drug use in Canada, Great Britain, France and other countries where every citizen has access to health care. Until the American people wake up and demand a single-payer health care system that isn’t profit-driven, it’s a waste of time to even bother with writing articles like this.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/09/29/2375630/betty-whitehead-look-at-single.html#storylink=cpy



I was laughing by the time I finished reading the article. Hospitals HAVE to make profits to continue in operation--and they do it by 'marking up' wherever they can get away with it. Non-profits simply plow the profit back into the operation rather than distributing it to owners or shareholders. It's like the kitty-boop video: if profit from one activity is driven down, it will pop up in another place--and keep looking for a place to pop up. The only solution is to remove the profit motivation. I can't believe the journalists were so naive that they didn't know this. I was really astonished to see so few letters regarding the article.

The newspaper held the letters regarding the article until this Sunday to publish a group of them.

http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/letters/#navlink=navdrop