An open letter to President Obama

Dear Mr President

Act like a fucking leader and not the GOP's and Blue Dogs' bitch.

Sincerely

Rob Wolfe

I might just try this

Daily Kos: State of the Nation

Go to townhall meeting with petition against socialized medicine; get as many people as possible to sign. At the bottom of the form, in small type, will be the text "Signatories of this petition agree to voluntarily give up their Medicare benefits, now and for the remainder of their lives. This petition will be delivered to Medicare administrators so that signatories may be stricken from the rolls." Turn the damn thing in.

I laughed and laughed after reading the post. Then I realized that the wingnuts wouldn't get the humor and I suddenly had chills.

The Health Care Fairy

Whenever I see things like this I wonder how opponents of health care reform think the bills are going to be paid. In the long run we all pay them one way or another.

There is no fucking health care fairy!

Interview with Neda Agha Soltan's mom

Neda's mother talks to BBC: 'Knowing that the world cried for her… that has comforted me' | Crooks and Liars

Neda has become a symbol not just of the struggle in Iran, I think, but of the sacrifices being made by young people around the world working for justice. It may be a small consolation, but her daughter's spirit is with us all.

I have nothing to add. Click through and watch.

An interesting read about recognition

Firedoglake » Down With (Micro) Tyranny!

Why, we wonder, do so many Americans remain disengaged from civic and politic life? Well, one reason can be found in the overpowering signals we send that they don't matter, or that there are people much more important than they are getting to do things they, Very Unimportant Persons, cannot do.

The "you-don't-matter" signals begin at an early age: "Children should be seen and not heard." The signals continue through adolescence as some (not all) authority figures promote docility and obedience. The poor and the non-white hear and see it every day of their lives, in the faces of store clerks, bureaucrats, police officers, even educators.

We create temporary hierarchies even when they are completely unnecessary. How easy it is for the church vestryman to forget he's only there because he has the luxury of time (and probably money). But the role soon takes on the aura of earned merit. There's a dividing line: deserving insiders (he's one) and undeserving outsiders.

I think that everyone has been on one side or the other of this divide at some point in their life. Most people have been on both, even in a small way.

I get email

Now, I normally don't pass along those chain letter or funny email things that we all get every day if we have any kind of online persona at all. I am making an exception for something that my sister sent me today because it just made me laugh.

I will note though that SOL has crossed the border because I have heard it off and on here in CT.
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As a Canadian, you have to be extra vigilant. There are a lot of impostors out there. If you suspect that someone is falsely trying to pass themselves off as a Canadian, make the following statement - and then carefully note their reaction:

"Last night, I cashed my pogey and went to buy a mickey of C.C. at the beer parlour, but my skidoo got stuck in the muskeg on my way back to the duplex. I was trying to deke out a deer, you see. Damn chinook, melted everything. And then a Mountie snuck up behind me in a ghost car and gave me an impaired. I was S.O.L., sitting there dressed only in my Stanfields and a toque at the time. And the Mountie, he's all chippy and everything, calling me a "shit disturber" and what not. What could I say, except, "Sorry, EH!"

If the person you are talking to nods sympathetically, they're one of us. If, however, they stare at you with a blank incomprehension, they are not a real Canadian. Have them reported to the authorities at once.

The passage cited above contains no fewer than 19 different Canadianisms.

For the impostors, In order:

pogey: EI (Employment insurance). Money provided by the government for not working.

mickey: A small bottle of booze (13 oz) (A Texas mickey, on the other hand, is a ridiculously big bottle of booze, which, despite the name, is still a Canadianism through and through.)

C.C.: Canadian Club, a brand of rye. Not to be confused with "hockey stick," another kind of Canadian Club.

beer parlour: Like an ice cream parlour, but for Canadians.

skidoo: Self-propelled decapitation unit for teenagers.

muskeg: Boggy swampland.

duplex: A single building divided in half with two sets of inhabitants, each trying to pretend the other doesn't exist while at the same time managing to drive each other crazy; metaphor for Canada's french and english.

deke: Used as a verb, it means "to fool an opponent through skillful misdirection." As a noun, it is used most often in exclamatory constructions, such as: "Whadda deke!" Meaning, "My, what an impressive display of physical dexterity employing misdirection and guile."

chinook: An unseasonably warm wind that comes over the Rockies and onto the plains, melting snow banks in Calgary but just missing Edmonton, much to the pleasure of Calgarians.

Mountie: Canadian icon, strong of jaw, red of coat, pure of heart. Always get their man! (See also Pepper spray, uses of.)

snuck: To have sneaked; to move, past tense, in a sneaky manner; non-restrictive extended semi-gerundial form of "did sneak." (We think.)

ghost car: An unmarked police car, easily identifiable by its inconspicuousness.

impaired: A charge of drunk driving. Used both as a noun and as an adjective (the alternative adjectival from of "impaired" being "pissed to the gills").

S.O.L.: Shit outta luck; in an unfortunate predicament.

Stanfields: Men's underwear, especially Grandpa-style, white cotton ones with a big elastic waistband and a large superfluous flap in the front. And back!

toque: Canada's official National Head Apparel, with about the same suave sex appeal as a pair of Stanfields.

chippy: Behaviour that is inappropriately aggressive; constantly looking for a reason to find offense; from "chip on one's shoulder." (See Western Canada)

shit disturber: (See Quebec) a troublemaker or provocateur. According to Katherine Barber, editor in Chief of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, "shit disturber" is a distinctly Canadian term. (Just remember that Western Canada is chippy and Quebec is a shit disturber, and you will do fine.)

Sorry, eh.

Polymath geekiness

Because I am both a math geek and a political junkie, I find this work on using spatial modeling techniques to categorize politicians absolutely fascinating. I am sure that not many others will but for the one or two that might ... here you go.