This Friday night, post your fun gettin' even/snark songs. Ought to be a lot of fun.
' [...]
A bipartisan [...]
In its lead editorial this morning, the New York Times calls for a full investigation of the illegal, warrantless wiretapping conducted and other crimes of the Bush/Cheney administration:
We've known for years that the Bush administration ignored and broke the law repeatedly in the name of national security. It' [...]
In all this discussion, has anyone mentioned that currently, the typical for-profit health insurance that most Americans now have does not include eye [...]
AMG has a strong following, and I'm curious if Fish will put his site on autopilot or try to' [...]
A long-time Maine People's Alliance donor announced that they will match every contribution made during the current fundraising drive for universal health care, as long as we make it to $5,000 by this Saturday July 18th.
We don't often ask for contributions by email, but the next few' [...]
http://www.wcsh6.com/life/prog...
The Maine Technology Institute (MTI) board of directors recently approved a total of over $1 [...]
The group, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, formed the PAC, called Focus on the Family Maine Marriage [...]
Thus far, the gay [...]
' [...]
As part of President Obama's agenda for reform, the time has come to update the nation's 19th century mining law to ensure' [...]
It was a fast finish to an otherwise slow stage, whose average speed was just 38 kph (23.6 mph) in the first four hours of racing as a disinterested and cranky peloton took its [...]
The hearing on the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor began yesterday, with Republican senators trying to make the most out of a statement she made 15 years ago:
I willingly accept the way the judge must not deny the difference resulting from experience and heritage, but attempt continuously to [...]
It is a rest day for the Tour de France, but not for us.
The Senate Committee on the Judiciary takes up the nomination to the Supreme Court of Judge Sonia Sotomayor today, beginning at 10:00 a.m. EST. You can stream it via the link above or on [...]
Whew - that was some storm that blew through here last night. Not much lightning, but plenty of wind and rain.
Those of you that yesterday guessed that the "senior White House official" that ordered the CIA to withhold information from Congress was Dick Cheney guessed correctly:
The Central Intelligence [...]
The Pyrenees part of the Tour ends with a selection of the region's great classics. With the climbs of Aspin and Tourmalet [...]
On 11 January 2009, President-elect Barack Obama said:
"We're still evaluating how we're going to approach the whole issue of interrogations, detentions, and so forth. And obviously we're going to be looking at past practices and I don't believe that anybody is above the law.
"On the other hand I also [...]
The Government Accounting Office (GAO) did a study on how secure Federal office buildings are, and the results are not too promising. From the WashPost this:
Investigators carried liquid explosives and low-yield detonators -- materials investigators note are not normally carried into federal buildings. The GAO said security concerns [...]
From 2004 to 2007 Anthem Health Care, WellPoint Inc.'s Maine subsidiary, saw profit grow [...]
At what point will the evidence illustrating how pervasive illegal activities were in the Bush/Cheney administration bring forth investigations and criminal prosecutions? Will CIA chief Leon Panetta admitting that his agency lied to Congress be the tipping point?
CIA Director Leon Panetta told the House Intelligence Committee that the [...]
After Monaco and Marseille, the 2009 Tour stops at a third "great beacon" of the Mediterranean. The capital of Catalonia will host a prestigious [...]
Dickerson had in fact submitted two resolutions for the Council to consider, the second in support of same-sex marriage in Maine [...]
The Bollard, a monthly publication out of Portland, has this opinion piece by Jon Queally, Their Anti-War Efforts and Ours that really gives much deserved praise to Maine's two House members, Reps. Mike Michaud and Chellie Pingree (h/t bg):
On June 16th, Maine's two members [...]
Feels like late October outside, not the middle of summer. I read reports of some firing up their woodstoves last night - not a great sign.
If you read anything today, be sure to read this piece in the NYTimes, Health Deals Could Harbor Hidden Costs:
In each case, the [...]
The stage is dedicated to Salvador Dali, who called the Perpignan railway station the "cosmogonic centre of the'" [...]
This is an interesting picture of the fight for health care reform in the key state of Maine, but it's also frustrating. Because while, as the recent Working America and AFL-CIO Health Care for America survey shows, it's clear that a [...]
Jim Mays lives in Rockport, and has been a regular at the Ocean Energy Task Force meetings.
Let George do it
Smart young federal bureaucrats [...]
If you've doubted that the AP is slanted to the right, this piece about health care systems in Europe, Europe's free health care has a hefty price tag will dispel that (h/t lenlarga). It is a litany of the right wing talking points with no comparison to the' [...]
In tomorrow's Bangor Daily News, on the 25th anniversary of Charlie Howard's killing, this piece will appear: [...]
I learned that Councilor Dickerson would be proposing a' [...]
Palin is at once the sexiest and the riskiest brand in the Republican Party. Her appeal to people in the party (and in the country) who [...]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Hit the link above to see a short video about killer drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles - UAV's) now being flown over Afghanistan-Pakistan war zones from pilots sitting in New Mexico. Previously we had heard they were only flying them from Creech AFB outside of Las Vegas, Nevada.
The' [...]
President Barack Obama makes his first trip to Moscow today, in an effort to parch up relations between the U.S. and Russia, McClatchy reports.
The Hill has this story on a SCOTUS ruling that didn't get much attention, Court opens door to possibility of corporate political spending:
Campaign finance' [...]
Reader Bob K had sent in this picture of the platform as it looks today:
[...]
How long has it been since a day began with sunny skies in Maine? This is definitely a day to get outside and hike up a hill or get on the water for a view of our beautiful state.
ProPublica has this story about How a Loophole Benefits General [...]
Taken earlier today of the 4th of July Parade in Thomaston, Maine. The Coast Guard COlor Guard was followed by this bagpipe band:
A man on stilts from the Shoestring Theatre Troup:
More after the fold:
Antique vehicles:
One has to like the sticker in the
[...]
In a hastily arranged news conference at her home in suburban Wasilla, Palin said she will formally step down July 26, and Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be inaugurated at the governor's' [...]
IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and [...]
FOURTH OF JULY SOLIDARITY CELEBRATION
Featuring Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion with Slaid Cleaves
PLACE: at the Solidarity Center, 20 Ivers St. Brewer, 04412.
TIME: 6 p.m. - 8:30 p.m Rain or Shine
This year's Fourth [...]
I'll also remind you of this post recounting last year's parade in Round Pond - if you look closely at the photographs, those dark' [...]
Mountaintop removal coal mining is the worst environmental tragedy in American history. When will the Obama administration finally stop this Appalachian apocalypse?
If ever an issue deserved President [...]
Also, the right click mouse function no longer works.
So if you're jonsing to upgrade, wait a few days and check their website to see if it has been fixed.
Democrats on a key Senate Committee outlined a revised and far less costly health care plan Wednesday night that includes a government-run insurance option and an annual fee on employers [...]
I [...]
In Beltway political news, the Hill reports that former senator John Sununu announced that he will not seek to return to the Senate, and that Rep. Joe Sestak to take on Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania. This will be an interesting race to [...]
Jack McKay and Steve Husson of Food AND Medicine warn against FairPoint in September 2007
A cloud of doom hangs over the northern New England land-line telephone carrier. Today in the news a changing of the guard is reported "amid money problems." According to a [...]
REP. PINGREE: "One of my concerns as a policy maker and a politician is making sure that everyone has access to affordable health care.
"My #1 concern isn't making sure that CEO's and insurance [...]
Think of the heat that President Obama took from GOP Members of Congress when he said that he would be [...]
? WellPoint Inc., Maine's biggest health insurer, holds 78 percent of the state market. Together with Aetna Inc., they control 88 percent of the market.
Two insurers [...]
In an interview in Portland, Snowe said it would be unfair to include a government-run health insurance option that would take effect immediately.
"If you establish a public option at the forefront that goes" [...]
If you've been wondering, rainfall for this month has been almost three times the average of 3.28 inches. But at least only two of those days have set a record: the 1.67 inches on 12 June, and the 3.21 inches on 19 June.
The cheapest and most reliable way' [...]
You can read his testimony in its entirety here (pdf warning), and I urge you to do so. Some snippets from it:
I [...]
The BDN provides its own take on the groups rally for health coverage that happened Saturday:
The issue has emerged as a divisive one in Congress, as lawmakers grapple with making comprehensive changes to the nation's health care system. Most Democrats support the inclusion of the so-called "public option," [...]
Maine Freedom is off and running to, with two volunteer programs this midweek:
Wednesday [...]
On Saturday a vocal group of nearly 100 gathered at Pickering Square in Bangor to demand health insurance reform in America. The target of the demonstration was the harm done to the American people because insurance companies cruelly are organized with insistence for high financial [...]
More change you can believe in: the AP reported Friday that President Obama is deciding whether to issue an executive order to hold detainees now held at Git Mo indefinitely:
Under the proposal, detainees considered too dangerous to prosecute or release would be kept in confinement in the U.S. [...]
From the White house:
On Monday, Nancy-Ann DeParle will be hosting a live-streamed, online chat to discuss health care reform (like the recent one with Van Jones). Join the White House's Facebook page to get the time once it is finalized.
It is safe to say' [...]
If our blood isn't boiling yet, it will after you read that two-thirds of health insurers used flawed database that overcharged patients:
Congressional investigators said Wednesday two-thirds of the U.S. health insurance industry used a faulty database that overcharged patients for seeing doctors outside their insurance network, costing Americans' [...]
Yesterday on Democracy Now, Amy Goodman had this report on ongoing efforts to efforts to organize workers at a Rite Aid distribution in California. Here guests included Angel Warner, a worker trying to form a union, and Ken Silverstein, author of "Labor's Last Stand: The Corporate Campaign to" [...]
First, Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake gives an update on how the Whip It plan is working:
Next, a group of 120 Members of Congress (MoC) (Congressional TriCaucus - comprised of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and [...]
Dr. Richard Dillihunt has another opinion piece in the BDN in support of a single payer system, Universal health care is near at hand. I do not share his optimism for how close our nation is to actually implementing such a system, but I do support it. He [...]
The BDN has a story this morning about a proposed tidal barrage electrical power plant proposed for Half Moon Cove in Eastport, and one has to wonder if the Maine DEP has already decided against [...]
I was surprised, because amongst the more casual conversations I had, I spoke with:
A SAD superintendent about the school consolidation plan, charter schools, and the recent SCOTUS [...]
IBEW 2337 held an informational picket outside of the Seadogs stadium last Thursday. In spite of the rain nearly fifty people showed up, to hand out [...]
About the bill, [...]
Upon landing we trooped through the beautiful Metro system to the Fairfax Embassy Row, where SEIU has billeted us. We appear to be a group various in age, from upper [...]
You'll recall that it was just last week that another prominent Republican, Nevada Sen. John Ensign admitted to having an affair after he urge passage of a' [...]
Call to action: Jane Hamsher at FireDogLake has this call to action, Let's Whip the Public Plan!, and asks you to help. Follow the steps at the link above.
' [...]
She's devised a scheme to whip the public plan, and follow that link to see how you can help:
Here's' [...]
Calling it a major step forward in President Obama's new energy frontier, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, joined by New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine, today issued five exploratory leases for renewable wind energy production on [...]
QUESTION: Wouldn't that drive private insurance out of business?
MR. OBAMA: Why would it drive private insurance out of business? If -- if private -- if [...]
Saying, "I'm an independent thinker, and I see what needs to be done," state Rep. Dawn Hill has announced she is running for the office of Maine governor in 2010.
Hill, a Democrat, is seeking the seat' [...]
Only two more days of this rain, I've read. Mushrooms are now growing in our grass.
In his weekly column in the BDN, John Buell asks On health care politics, why not demand the best?:
Our health care system is broken. Under our system, health care expenditures are projected to' [...]
This report documents the irrefutable conclusion that health care and health insurance are becoming increasingly unaffordable for a growing portion of the [...]
