This two part video shows Former British Ambassador Craig Murray saying that the UK and the USA sent prisoners to Uzbek to be tortured.

I wonder how our staunchly anti-communist, anti-totalitarian wing nuts feel about this use of our former enemies.

I wonder why it is necessary to torture people into signing confessions and then killing them. Why not just forge the confession and kill them “humanely”?

Follow this link to the story in the Marine Corps Times about how Republican Senator Coburn places holds on several veteran’s benefits bills. Follow this link to sign VoteVets.org’s petition to Sen. Coburn.

For those who think President’s Obama’s efforts to get things through the Congress is just a walk in the park, remember this story next time you are tempted to complain about lack of progress.

I have made statements before about how Lyndon Johnson would never have tolerated such obstructionism.  I then think back to how campaign finance laws have been changed over the years.  The control that the Democratic Party has over its Senators and Representatives is much less now than it was in Johnson’s years.  That is why even a 60 vote majority is not enough to give Reid the power to stop such shenanigans.

I would hate to think that American style Democracy cannot work without such dictatorial powers wielded by a few of our leaders.

The proof must come from continued pressure from the electorate in making calls to members of Congress demanding action.  Whining about President Obama’s failures just won’t cut it anymore.

Even to me, my call to stop whining about Obama sounds a little like the usual Right Wingnut’s complaint.  How can you complain about Bush condoning torture, when the terrorists are so inhumane?  My answer is that I have some say in what my President does, but other than sending an army to Afghanistan, I don’t have much control over what the terrorists do.

In this case, I have as much say in what Congress does as I do about what President Obama does.  So my call to focus our energy where it will do the most good is justified in this case as opposed to such supposed calls in the case of torture.

Follow this link to the report in the Christian Science Monitor.

I know that most of the readers of this blog wouldn’t have too much trouble believing that Fool’s News lies.

However, living out here in the hinterlands of Massachusetts, I have been asked by people I socialize with, “what  Fool’s News has ever lied about?”  Never believing that I would ever be asked such a question, I had not been saving up any evidence.  I have now decided that I had better collect the evidence.

Just don’t ask me to actually watch Fool’s News to gather the evidence. I am afraid my brain would start to rot.  I see plenty of evidence of such rot in people who do admit to watching it.

Follow this link to the story of how the GOP tried to hold up the extension of unemployment benefits.  Fortunately there ended up being 97 Senators who could see how wrong it was to hold up benefits for political reasons.  Occasionally even Republicans can be convinced to stop fighting Obama.

Watch the video as President Obama thanks his supporters for their continuing efforts.

I have been telling people that President Obama has always said that his election was not the goal, it was only the beginning of our journey to the goal. In this video, President Obama confirms what I have been trying to tell people.

For those erstwhile supporters who are ready to abandon the President just as he is getting started, I ask you to contemplate the 300,000 phone calls he mentioned in the video. Continuing to work toward the goal is the opposite of abandoning the journey just as we get started.

There seems to be a general misunderstanding about whether or not the health insurers get to keep their anti-trust exemption.

To clear up this misunderstanding, I have pointed to Sec. 262. Restoring application of antitrust laws to health sector insurers. starting on page 150 of the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

People have read that section and still misunderstood it to mean the exact opposite of what it does mean.

Follow this link to a letter to the editor in the Worcester T & G, of all places, that helps explain. This is what the letter said:

The Constitution’s commerce clause establishes federal regulation of interstate commerce. The 1868 Supreme Court case Paul v. Virginia decided that insurance was not an interstate activity and should be state regulated. In 1944, the court decided in United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Association, that insurance was clearly interstate commerce and should be federally regulated. In 1945, Congress delegated this federal responsibility back to the states with the McCarran-Ferguson Act. Fast-forward to current times, when reports like the 2007 American Medical Association study of competition among health insurers show that in a majority of states the private health insurance market is dominated 60 to 90 percent by one or two companies.

How’s it possible that only one or two insurers write most of the policies in a given state or locality? Is it super-efficient management that other companies simply cannot match? Is it just that few insurers are big enough to compete everywhere? Do the large sums of re-election campaign money from insurance lobbies play a role?

Regardless of the explanation, state regulation of insurance has evolved a health insurance system of local monopolies that benefit insurance companies far more than you or I, and we know the profit motive makes insurers more focused on their bottom line than on the welfare of their customers. If that’s your idea of how it should be done, then you will probably see little reason for reform. If not, you should be insisting on and supporting major changes that make people the top priority.

RONALD KENT

To this letter, I added the following reply:

Ronald,

Thanks for adding this vital piece of information.

The latest version of the House of Representatives’ Affordable Health Care for America Act has Sec. 262. Restoring application of antitrust laws to health sector insurers. starting on page 150.

That section starts off, with (a) AMENDMENT TO MCCARRAN-FERGUSON ACT.- Section 3 of the Act of March 9, 1945 (15 U.S.C. 1013), commonly known as the McCarran-Ferguson Act, is amended by adding at the end the following:

Just to give a flavor of some of what that section says, on page 152 is Except as provided in paragraph (2), nothing contained in this Act shall modify, impair, or supersede the operation of any of the antitrust laws with respect to price fixing, market allocation, or monopolization (or attempting to monopolize)

I surmised the gist of what you wrote from reading the current bill. Your details make it much clearer as to why this section was written in the way it was.

Is it true that not everyone on Fool’s News is a fool? See the video.

Here is Jon Stewart’s take on the war between the Obama White House & Fool’s News

According to the web site bastadobbs.com/

Lou Dobbs uses his platform on CNN to spread myths and misinformation about Latinos and immigrants, even as his network is wooing Latino viewers. It’s time we said enough (that’s basta in Spanish). Join us in calling on CNN to get rid of Dobbs!

Here is the video that they have put together to explain the campaign.

The latest part of the campaign is to get CNN to report this issue. Follow this link to join this effort.

CNN’s iReport web site is the perfect place to tell CNN what you think of Lou Dobbs. Use the form below to upload a photo or short video. We’ve included some examples to give you ideas, but don’t be afraid to be creative. Just make sure your upload has a clear message: Lou Dobbs Must Go!

Here is the image I made to upload for the campaign.

Follow this link to the online version of The Affordable Health Care for America Act — H.R. 3962 that Speaker Nancy Pelosi just announced today.  This is the bill from the House of Representatives.  (The link takes you to an Adobe Acrobat version of the file (pdf).)

Democrats have created a side-by-side comparison of the bill as introduced initially and in its present form. Follow this link to go directly to the comparison. Alternatively, you could follow this link to the article on Huffington Post that displays the comparison.

Before you buy into anyone’s interpretation of the bill, read it for yourself.  Read it very carefully.  All 1990 pages of it.

Actually, as I did before, when you hear some outlandish claim like death panels are in the bill, get an exact reference to where in the bill this item appears.  Then go to the bill and read it for yourself.  You will be able to quickly establish whether or not the person telling you the story has any credibility at all.

I don’t care how many times the persons swears up and down on how many bibles that the exact words are in the bill, I still suggest you look it up for yourself.  Since the bill is in computer readable form, you can actually search for words to see if they appear in the bill at all.

I have yet to find one of these outlandish claims have ever been true.  There is absolutely no reason for you to take my word for it.  Look it up yourself.

There is no excuse to be fooled by the commentators when the text of the bill is available for you to read.