Compare these figures to 1981, when only 8% of personal bankruptcies were caused by illness.
With so many high-profile stories in the news lately - you may not have heard about the historic victories for animals that are taking place in American courtrooms. It's worth noting that two of PETA's undercover investigations of factory farms have just resulted in groundbreaking animal abuse convictions—convictions that are both highly significant and long overdue. All too often, the abuse of animals in the meat industry is shrugged off as just the cost of doing business. http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/16-4
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WTF? West offering to endorse Israeli attack on Iran as part of settlement deal: http://news.antiwar.com/2009/07/16/west-offering-to-endorse-israeli-attack-on-iran-as-part-of-settlement-deal/
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Very smooth, Senator:
"Then you would have some 'splaining to do." Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), doing his best Ricky Ricardo impression at Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearing.
Also .....
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) will not cooperate with investigators who investigate Sen. John Ensign's extramarital affair with the wife of a former top aide—even with the Senate's own Ethics Committee.
Coburn told Roll Call: "I was counseling him as a physician and as an ordained deacon. That is a privileged communication that I will never reveal to anybody. Not to the (Senate) Ethics Committee, not to a court of law, not to anybody."
Coburn lived with Ensign in Capitol Hill home owned by a Christian fellowship during the time that Ensign had an affair with the wife of a former top aide to Ensign.
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It turns out that Doug Hampton, the Senate staffer whose wife had an affair with Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), did not report on his Senate disclosure form the $96,000 "gift" he and his wife received from Ensign's parents.
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Lindsey Graham Says We Don't Need Trials To Know the Guilty
Lindsey Graham seems to know a lot about the people being held prisoner in places like Guantanamo Bay and Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. They "deserve to be in jail until they die," he says.
Why? What does Senator Graham know about these prisoners?
Senator Graham doesn't know anything about these prisoners other than what he's been told - by the people who threw the prisoners into jail in the first place. That's not an objective opinion.
Remember what they used to say about liberty, justice and the American way? Here in America, the application of justice is supposed to come through due process, not through a lopsided appearance of guilt crafted before a trial has even begun.
It's a fair trial that our Constitution requires, when people are imprisoned because they've been accused of a crime. The United States of America is supposed to be a nation where no one ever is locked away until death merely because of an accusation of criminal conduct by a politician seeking to please crowds of angry citizens.
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Has al Qaeda declared victory yet, Steve?
More than a year ago, on March 7, 2008, Representative Steve King of Iowa made a prediction about what would happen if Barack Obama was elected president. Starting off with a classic "now, I'm not a bigot, but…" introduction, he made this prophesy:
I don't want to disparage anyone because of their race, their ethnicity, their name - whatever their religion their father might have been. I'll just say this: When you think about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected President of the United States, I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam? I will tell you that, if he is elected president, then the radical Islamists, the al Qaeda, the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11 because they will declare victory in this War on Terror.
Barack Obama was elected President of the United States eight months ago, Rep. King. Has "the al Qaeda" declared victory in the War on Terror yet? Seems more like their representatives have been nonplussed and sputtering.
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Krugman: The American economy remains in dire straits, with one worker in six unemployed or underemployed. Yet Goldman Sachs just reported record quarterly profits — and it's preparing to hand out huge bonuses, comparable to what it was paying before the crisis. What does this contrast tell us?
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Another GOP sex scandal! But this one involves an ex-member of congress.
And yes Chip Pickering is another one of the Christian scolds who resided at the mysterious C Street Christian complex, where Ensign and Sanford sought spiritual help. I'm detecting a pattern here…
Pickering stepped down in 2007 to spend more time with his family, but as it turns out, he was also spending time with his mistress. Oops.
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Way to go, Asspress!
Nothing finer than choosing a photo that says Hillary is a buffoon and a lightweight, and well, she is a woman who makes silly faces.
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Last night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow debated her colleague Pat Buchanan on the role of affirmative action in the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor. When Maddow pointed out that 108 of 110 Supreme Court justices have been white, Buchanan responded, "White men were 100% of the people that wrote the Constitution, 100% of the people that signed the Declaration of Independence, 100% of the people who died at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, probably close to 100% of the people who died at Normandy. This has been a country built basically by white folks."
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Blue Dogs threatening to quash health bill over surtax voted for Bush tax cuts
Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR) — along with six other members of the Blue Dog coalition on the House Energy and Commerce Committee — are threatening to vote down the House's health care legislation in committee. Ross reportedly objects to the surtax included in the bill, saying "I don't like the idea of raising taxes in the worst economic crisis since World War II." However, the Blue Dogs concerned about the surtax voted for some of the budget busting Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 that constituted a huge gift to the very wealthiest Americans. Of the seven Blue Dogs on from Energy and Commerce who are complaining, four were around to vote on Bush's tax cuts. Here's how they voted:
| Member | 2001 | 2003 |
| Rep. Mike Ross (AR) | Yes | No |
| Rep. Bart Gordon (TN) | Yes | No |
| Rep. Jim Matheson (UT) | Yes | Yes |
| Rep. Baron Hill (IN) | No | No |
Over the ten year window from 2001-2010, the Bush tax cuts gave the richest one percent of Americans about $715 billion in tax breaks. This comes out to about $518,000 per household over ten years or about $51,800 per year. The proposed surtax, meanwhile, would raise $544 billion from households making more than $350,000 per year. The Wonk Room has more.
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Conservative education 'experts' want less Lincoln and more Jesus in Texas textbooks: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/07/16/conservative-texas-jesus-lincoln/
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20 different kinds of awesome
Gail Collins's terrific recap of the Sotomayor confirmation hearing:
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: Judge, before I read a string of anonymous comments about your temperament problem, I'd like to make you repeat that wise Latina remark again just for the heck of it.
JUDGE SOTOMAYOR: Thank you, Senator, for the opportunity to revisit that matter. I appreciate that the man who once said he'd 'drown himself if North Carolina went for Obama' has a special contribution to make when it comes to the importance of thinking before you speak.
Sweet.
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Sweet chocolate Jesus...
Glenn Beck goes on Fox & Friends, creates megavortex of stupidity: http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200907150016
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