How The Swash Zone Saved Christmas

Ramona came home today, two days before the doctors originally planned. She's happy and exhausted and getting used to the new "boot" on her leg that replaced the cast this morning. But the best part, the part I need to share with all of you here at THE SWASH ZONE, is that I got to tell her what I found when I checked my PayPal account Sunday night.

Ramona was agape. That complete strangers would reach through the intertubes and lend so much help was...well, it was incomprehensible to her. She doesn't have an internet connection and has never "surfed." Times are hard, and who is she to think the world might return even a tiny portion of what she has earned in sacrifices through the years? Karma is foreign to her Baptist upbringing; goodness was its own reward.

But here was a group of nearly two dozen strangers saving Christmas, and I do not exaggerate.

One of the great ironies of the accident that nearly killed her was that her family was required to recover several unwrapped Christmas presents from the car. She had come to the sad conclusion she would need to return the gifts they had already seen and held -- an even harder task, given they were bought in Chicago. Her mind was running out of things to liquidate and she was trying very hard not to let despair win when suddenly...Christmas was saved.

But by whom? Who were these virtual Santas, she wondered? It just did not calculate. I explained twice, and though she was lucid and used to her medication by now I still don't think she could fully comprehend it.

I have a list of email addresses to give her. Everyone that helped can expect a thank-you note as soon as her wrist is well enough to write one. The denizens of the Zone saved Christmas, and you will never know how deep that joy has reached.

You're all heroes tonight. I love each and every one of you -- God bless and keep you all.

Republicans for rape

I'd say they had some explaining to do, but perhaps it isn't necessary. There's enough in the fact that 30 Republican Senators thought that legalized gang rape was preferable to "government interference" and punishing it is an offense against the sanctity of the employment contract, particularly those of government contractors owned by prominent Republicans.

30 Republican Senators voted against Senator Al Franken's "anti-rape" amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act. We have no way of explaining, other than to assume these Senators owe more to KBR than to their constituents or to their sense of morality, because they won't tell us why.

I don't think we need an explanation. I think we can assume that if we allow employees of KBR, for instance, to sue their employers if they are raped on the job, by company employees in company facilities. it might cost the owners of Senators too much money.

Fortunately a majority of us voted for Democrats last year - not that they're all saintly Senators either - but at least they weren't ready to support the validity of employment contracts wherein a 19 year old like Jamie Leigh Jones can inadvertently sign away her body for the recreational use of criminals. Perhaps some of them just have daughters, but in any event, a somewhat watered down version of the amendment was passed and signed into law by President Obama in what will surely be explained, like everything he does, as an act of Kenyan Marxist Fascism worthy of Pol Pot and Adolph Hitler.

The 30 Republicans who want to kidnap and rape your daughters is a group with many familiar names. We've all heard them tell us all about morality and family values and our Christian heritage. If you're a Republican, perhaps that won't puzzle you. If you have however, some basic respect for morality and law and any kind of human values, you'll want to look at the list and remember when it comes time for that grand reconquista in 2010 they're pretending is a sure thing.

Rep. Anthony Weiner Wants To Chat

Or so he says, and you betcha (thanks, Sarah) I'm not going to miss the opportunity. Thought you may want to take advantage of it, too. The man wants to know how I/we feel -- so let's tell him.

Here is his message:

Dear Elizabeth,

I am deeply disappointed with the lost opportunities and capitulation in the health care bill the Senate will vote on later this week. And I know we are all upset with the Senate proposal.

I believe that we have a real chance to curb health care costs and provide affordable coverage to everyone. And we're all frustrated that the Senate has chosen not to act boldly, but to instead bend to the will of a small minority who do not want to see real reform.

As I wrote you last week, it's important to me to hear directly from you during this frustrating time. Please join me for a live online chat on Tuesday, December 22nd, at 7:00 PM EST at countdowntohealthcare.com/chat/.

We can discuss what's happening in the Senate and talk about what the rest of the process will look like, from a full Senate vote, to the conference committee that will reconcile the House and Senate bills.

I want to answer your questions, but I also want to know how you feel. I still believe that we should remain at the table until this process is over, but it's important to me to hear what you think.

I know that many of us are upset that just a few senators have managed to stand in the way of real progress on health care. But now is a time for us to talk, keep the conversation alive, and figure out what we can do to help advance the cause of quality, affordable health care in America.

I look forward to chatting with you on Tuesday, December 22nd at 7:00 PM EST at countdowntohealthcare.com/chat/.

Thanks,
Anthony.

Misinformer Of The Year

Media Matters names Glenn Beck "misinformer of the year:"

Tweet Tweet

In the winter, Florida sees countless twittering things with small brains, perching on power lines and trees, circling overhead and grazing my lawn looking for lizards and bugs. Of course, even a hundred years ago there were so many they would darken the sky, but we've hunted some to extinction, rendered many species endangered by draining the everglades to grow sugar and by poisoning the waters with pesticides, fertilizers, oil and heavy metals. All over the world, nature as we once knew it is in retreat, from the rain forests of the Amazon to the melting tundra and retreating glaciers. Even the birds know it and we all know who's to blame. It's not the birds.

Well, not all of us. Sarah Palin insults the intelligence of most twittering things by claiming that man can't influence or change "nature's ways" and is arrogant to think so. Yes, that's OK, speechlessness is a normal reaction to such idiocy. What can you call it but idiocy and what can you call it but arrogance to assert that the magical powers of God will steadily restore the countless square miles of ocean bottom scraped bare by drag nets, restore the countless miles of coral bleached by growing acidity and reanimate the countless species disappearing at an accelerating rate? And what is arrogance, after all, but making grand statements about nature without any knowledge whatever having to do with atmospheric and oceanographic sciences, geology, physics, chemistry or in fact, any damned thing but talking in tongues and burning witches?

"arrogant&naive2say man overpwers nature" tweets the idiot Palin.

The painful irony of course, is not that man is part of nature and man is changing the world in many, many obvious and quantifiable ways. It's not just that we've disassembled the building blocks of matter, decoded the blueprints for life, unravelled the history of the universe -- the irony is that it may be arrogant to say that we can ever overpower stupidity, cupidity, stone age superstition and the crackpot politics that eats away at America like a cancer.

Worthwhile perspectives on the Senate bill

Professor Jacob Hacker, the "godfather of the public option", and Senator Al Franken explain why they support passage of the Senate bill, even weakened as it is. Both found via Oliver Willis, who has consistently been a good source of blogger coverage and analysis on this issue -- Liberal Values has been another. And don't forget Paul Krugman. Update: The AMA comes out in support too.

Hey, all forty Republicans still voted against the thing -- there must be some good in it!

(Cross-posted from my home blog.)

Health Insurance Reform Winners and Losers

Who wins, who loses in Senate health bill

By Erica Werner, AP

WASHINGTON – The little town of Libby, Mont., isn't mentioned by name in the Senate's mammoth health care bill, but its 2,900 citizens are big winners in the legislation, thanks to the influence of Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont.

After pushing for years for help for residents, many of whom suffer from asbestos-related illnesses from a now-closed mineral mining operation, Baucus inserted language in a package of last-minute amendments that grants them access to Medicare benefits.

He didn't advertise the change, and it takes a close read of the bill to find it. It's just one example of how the sweeping legislation designed to remake the U.S. health care system and extend coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans also helps and hurts more narrow interests, often thanks to one lawmaker with influence or bargaining power.

Continue.

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How outrageous is it that Baucus et al. deemed all citizens of that small town worthy of Medicare benefits, but not the rest of us? Are some people better than others? More deserving of affordable health care than others?

Read the whole piece -- it's pretty disturbing, even though it's only a glimpse of the winners and losers in this debacle. Without a doubt, there are more eyebrow-raising revelations included in the bill. Like insurance coverage for prayer.

It also shows that -- surprise, surprise -- if there is a will, there is a way. If an obstinate senator wants to squeeze favorable provisions for his "special interests," it can be done, even if it flies in the face of decency, equality, and/or common sense.

So why can't the so-called progressives insist on such concessions on behalf of ALL American people?

Is this really too much to ask?

HARASSED WOMEN

There is an insidious and dangerous pattern of harassment against women in the Middle East that is reaching critical proportions, mostly because:

“…that harassment was unchecked across the region because laws don't punish it, women don't report it and the authorities ignore it.”

That is the conclusion from a panel of activists after a 2 day conference in Cairo to discuss this alarming trend. The full article is HERE.

No matter how demurely they are dressed or whether they have children in tow, women who venture into the streets are subjected to sexual harassment, including groping and verbal abuse.

The problem seems to encompass most nations of the Middle East, including Syria, Yemen and Egypt.

“Participants at the conference said men are threatened by an increasingly active female labor force, with conservatives laying the blame for harassment on women's dress and behavior.”

“In Yemen, where nearly all women are covered from head to toe, activist Amal Basha said 90 percent of women in a published study reported harassment, specifically pinching.”

"The religious leaders are always blaming the women, making them live in a constant state of fear because out there, someone is following them," she said.”

“If a harassment case is reported in Yemen, Basha added, traditional leaders interfere to cover it up, remove the evidence or terrorize the victim.”

There is a campaign of systematic terrorizing and unrelenting harassment aimed against Arab women that has largely been ignored or covered up for years.

Women have had no place to turn, no one to help them. But that is changing with the formation of The Alliance For Arab Women which is spearheading projects to change the course of women’s lives in Arab nations.

We need to let these women know we support them and that they will not be forgotten by drawing attention to their plight every chance we get.

Would You Vote For This Bill?

That's the question Bill Moyers poses to Matt Taibbi and Robert Kuttner on his "Journal."

Taibbi answers "No." Kuttner says, "I would hold my nose and pass it."

Watch the video (and weep -- and/or bang your head against the wall).

The Bill

If you haven't seen Keith Olbermann's recent interview with Wendell Potter, discussing the benefits for the medical-insurance industry coming from the current Senate health care bill, here it is.

Informative and worth watching:

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