BRAZENLY LIBERAL — a fact-based initiative

UPDATE: It looks like we will be able to recreate some of the missing data via Google cache. Our love/hate relationship with Google is currently pointing to love.

If things around here look a little shopworn, there’s a really shitty reason.

Due to a combination of my own ineptness and unclear instructions on database upgrading, we have lost TWO FULL YEARS of posts, design, programming, etc. on this site.

AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010, get your ass ready because here we come.

I love the guys at Democrats.com because they will not settle for half-baked, warmed over, faux bipartisan, so-far-toward-the-center-it’s-now-on-the-right bullshit being served up by the Blue Dogs and too many others.

Dear Brazenly Liberal,

After months of debate, an overwhelming majority of Americans support a “robust public option” similar to Medicare.

And thanks to the heroic efforts of progressive activists, we have almost enough votes in the Senate and House to pass it.

The Democratic majorities in the Senate (60/40) and the House (258/177) are large enough to pass a “public option” even with no Republican support. But a handful of conservative “Democrats” are blocking the will of the Democratic majority.

These conservative “Democrats” refuse to listen to the Democratic voters who elected them. That means it’s up to our Democratic leaders – Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and President Obama – to persuade them.

Join the Democratic Donor Strike for a Robust Public Option:
http://www.democrats.com/donor-strike-for-public-option?cid=ZGVtczI0NTEyMWRlbXM%3D

We will not accept a weak public option or worse, a “trigger.” We want a robust public option (based on Medicare rates, not negotiated rates) that is nation-wide (with no state opt-outs), administered by Medicare (not a for-profit insurance company) and available immediately.

That is why we are joining together in a Democratic donor strike against the DNC, DSCC, and DCCC until the Democratic Congress passes – and President Obama signs – healthcare reform with a robust public option. Until then, we will only donate to individual Democrats who will truly fight for us.

Join the Democratic Donor Strike for a Robust Public Option:
http://www.democrats.com/donor-strike-for-public-option?cid=ZGVtczI0NTEyMWRlbXM%3D

Thanks for all you do!

Bob Fertik

During the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee and read the news:  5 dead

Long weekend: 360 dead

Doing the right thing and ensuring universal health care: Priceless

Like Alan Grayson, Anita Dunn was a “Huh? Who?” name to most liberals a few weeks ago. But like Congressman Grayson, she’ll be a star by noon.

That’s what happens when someone in the Democratic party finds the intestinal fortitude to tell the truth about the GOP and their fanboys.

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Barney Frank, whom I admire greatly, says it is.
Frank feels it would be a better expenditure of time and effort to lobby elected officials and get friends and family to do so, too.

Now, I’ve got to say this is a bit of an awkward slog for me.  Where do I get the nerve to think I know better than he? As a straight woman, I’ve seen the struggle – hated how it hurt people I love – but I haven’t lived it myself. And I’m smart enough to know there’s a world of difference between the two.

That having been said, I think he’s out of his fucking mind on this one.

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Here’s the Dishonor Roll of Democrats who betrayed the people:

Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.).

Remember them when their Primary opponents need money.

(More info at  Huffpo)

We are finally and truly a nation that has its priorities straight.  I am so proud of us!

Brilliant

It surprises most city dwellers we know to learn how hard it is for us in farm country to buy good fresh produce locally.  That’s because this is corn and soybeans country and most folks don’t realize that 98% of the soybeans and 80% of the corn grown in the United States is the type fed to livestock, not people.  Most American crops are food fed to other food.

We have our own kitchen garden where we have grown a fair portion of the food we eat, but still need to shop for most of  it and shopping means – or used to mean – Whole Foods.  The nearest WF is 75 miles away, but it was totally worth it.  Man oh man, we loved shopping there.  Aisle after aisle of beautiful looking foodstuffs.  There was always something new to try and we stuffed ourselves on the way home.

I’m not sure why we assumed all that organic and veg-friendly food that filled a large part of the store meant they were enlightened on issues of health.  And I’m really not sure why we assumed the owners would not be rightwing nutjobs.  But we did.  There were periodic rumors about owner John Mackey and his Republican leanings, but the extent of it somehow escaped us.

So we were shocked and flat out depressed to read Mackey was not only opposed to health care reform, but was actively spreading bullshit to fertilize the GOP HCR lie machine.  This isn’t some confused Medicare recipient who’s been told he’s 3 doctor’s visits from the death panel.  Mackey knows better.

If the GOP and the Blue Dogs and the insurance companies who own them manage to derail health care reform this time, it will be a death sentence for untold numbers of people who are unable through no fault of their own to win at this game of Every Man for Himself.  Not that that will weigh overly heavily on their consciences.

We’ll miss Whole Foods, but not for long.  There’s a nice place down in Champaign called  “Strawberry Fields” that has those insanely delicious Cuties.

UPDATE #1:

That’s the subject line in an email from David Axelrod.  “Something worth forwarding.”  Jesus!  Talk about a subject line guaranteed to see it’s deleted from many inboxes without reading because it looks like spam!

Axelrod is an alright sort.  It’s just that this White House, so beautifully eloquent in long form communications like speeches, really sucks it when it comes to punchy, sound bite-y, short form.  They’re just not very good at getting their message across to the slack-jawed masses who need it the most.

Ever onward, though, Axelrod’s email is worth forwarding. Most of it it written over the heads of the birthers, deathers, and assorted astroturf, but with some small effort it can be dumbed down enough to be understood by at least the smartest of Fox News viewers.  “Sick bad.”  “Medicine good.”    See?  Full text after the jump.

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Cake Party Laugh Smile Presents Hoopla—– Okay, that’s it. Get back to work!

You expect it of the GOP and its pet radio mouths.   But last November, the country said 8 years of Them As Has Gets politics were enough and voted the lapdogs of corporate power out of office.  Unfortunately, some of them managed to squeak through dressed as Democrats.

With health care reform getting less than the attention it deserves in congress, this info deserves a rerun.  Courtesy of OpenSecrets, a list of these Blue Dogs and the contributions received from their corporate leash handlers:

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/06/blue-dog-bark-backed-by-insure.html

I’ve never been able to muster much good feeling for the slimy, hateful puppy-beating, possibly pedophilic reprobate, but if he’s going to encourage his addlepated followers not to vote for John McCain and, in fact, not to vote at all for either candidate for President in November, that’s a James Dobson that works for me.
Here he is, working the crazyreligiousrightwingnut lies and innuendo against Barack Obama. Mostly, it’s the usual Dobson word vomit, but there’s that golden nugget (emphasis added):

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement’s biggest names, James Dobson, accuses the likely Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible and pushing a ”fruitcake interpretation” of the Constitution.The criticism, to be aired Tuesday on Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio program, comes shortly after an Obama aide suggested a meeting at the organization’s headquarters here, said Tom Minnery, senior vice president for government and public policy at Focus on the Family…

…Dobson has not backed off his statement that he could not in good conscience vote for McCain because of concerns over the Arizona senator’s conservative credentials. Dobson has said he will vote in November but has suggested he might not vote for president.

Yes, yes, yes, I know that as a liberal I’m supposed to be rocking the vote or standing on a corner, forcibly registering everyone who walks by or whatever. But, really, over the past seven years, haven’t we had more than enough of these morons contributing to public policy?  I’m not advocating ever denying anyone his right to vote, but if they choose to stay home, that’s fine by me.  Let’s not forget these morons gave the  worst President of my lifetime, very possibly the worst President EVER,  enough votes to make it possible for him to steal the election in 2000 and reinfest the Oval Office in 2004.