Should the Dems Strip Joe of His Committe Chair?

Of course they should. He supported John McCain, and besides he has, again and again, betrayed the Democratic party and Congressional leaders and lied to the American people.

Having said that, they can put make his head of the damn Senate and put him on Mount Fucking Rushmore for all I care if it will help get a progressive health care bill enacted. I doubt that it will, since he's unprincipled - or rather, his only real goal appears to be to protect the insurers from his state. In which case, there's not much more to be done. Except cut him loose. Finally.

What Recession?

James Purdey & Sons, the gunsmith owned by Cie. Financiere Richemont SA, will expand production of its entry-level, 31,625-pound ($52,000) shotguns this fiscal year, broadening the company’s market as the wealthiest luxury- goods shoppers retrench.

Purists respond by saying cheaper guns may risk Purdey’s cachet and cannibalize demand for the more expensive guns, according to Florian Thaler, a London-based shooting enthusiast who trades commodities for a living.

Sporters are ideal for clay-pigeon shooting and may win new clients who later commission a bespoke gun for game, while their light weight may appeal to female shooters as more women take up the sport, Purdey said.

They're going to need those guns when the revolution starts.

Shhh!!! He's Hiding!!

No Bin Laden Reports 'In Years'

The US has had no reliable information on the whereabouts of al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in years, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has admitted.

Mr Gates told ABC News in remarks being broadcast on Sunday: "Well, we don't know for a fact where Osama Bin Laden is. If we did, we'd go get him."

A Taliban detainee in Pakistan told the BBC last week that he had information Bin Laden was in Afghanistan this year.

However, Mr Gates said he could not confirm that information.

When asked by ABC's This Week programme when the US last had any good intelligence on the whereabouts of the al-Qaeda leader, Mr Gates said: "I think it's been years."

He could not confirm the details of the Taliban detainee, who claimed to have met Osama Bin Laden numerous times before 9/11.

The detainee said that in January or February he met a trusted contact who had seen Bin Laden about 15 to 20 days earlier in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden had previously been thought to be on the Pakistan side of the border with Afghanistan.

But the detainee said that militants were avoiding Pakistani territory because of the risk of US drone attacks.

The detainee said Bin Laden was well.

DOMA UNCONSTITUTIONAL - FOR ONE COUPLE

Judge rules same-sex couple must be repaid
By Denny Walsh, The Sacramento Bee

Nov. 19- A judge ruled Wednesday an assistant federal public defender's spouse must be compensated for health care benefits withheld since July 2008 because the couple are gay.

Stephen Reinhardt, a member of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, also reminded the bureaucracy that he decreed nine months ago in the same case that withholding benefits based on sexual orientation violates the U.S. Constitution's due process guarantee and the circuit's employment dispute resolution plan for federal public defenders and their staffs.

In his order Wednesday, Reinhardt wrote there is no rational basis for denying benefits to same-sex spouses of federal public defender employees while granting them to opposite-sex spouses of employees. "I conclude that the application of DOMA -- to reach that result is unconstitutional."

Reinhardt was writing not in his capacity as a federal appellate judge but as an employer's representative in a grievance procedure. Consequently, the ruling applies only to Levenson and Sears.

Applying that standard to Levenson's case, "the challenged denial of benefits is constitutional only if there is a rational basis," Reinhardt wrote. "No such basis exists."

"Thus," Reinhardt concluded, "the denial of federal benefits to same- sex spouses cannot be justified as an expression of the government's disapproval of homosexuality, preference for heterosexuality, or desire to discourage gay marriage."

http://www.sacbee.com/
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Barbour Wants to Eliminate 3 State Universities

Clarion Ledger:

Facing growing budget constraints, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour wants to save money by cutting the state's public universities from eight to five. On Monday, Barbour proposed combining historically black universities Mississippi Valley State and Alcorn State into Jackson State, also an HBCU. He also called for merging Mississippi University for Women into Mississippi State.

He has totally blown my image of the Republican party.

Gov. Paterson Chickens Out

"This is not a decision that I would have made," Paterson said when asked about the impending trial. "Our country was attacked on its own soil on Sept. 11, 2001, and New York was very much the epicenter of that attack."

He wasn't going to beat Andy Cuomo anyway, but running for Governor as a coward surely won't help.

House Health Care Reform Bill

October 29, 2009
Health care reform bill, House of Representatives:

- Government run health insurance plan
- Negotiated rates
- All insurers would have accept new customers regardless of preexisting conditions
- More preventive care
- Expand Medicaid to anyone with 150% of poverty level
- Employers must provide insurance or pay a penalty
- New tax on people making over $ 1 million per year
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- Estimated savings of $500 million per year