And he knows how to say it without biting his tongue. Why is so difficult for members of Congress to articulate what health care or health insurance reform means? My new favorite junior senator from Minnesota tells his constituents--even the ones that disagree--the unvarnished truth about the situation. 

From Stories Of Almost Everyone:

Global Taxes

Love wanes, life weighs, death wastes
Some griefs are inevitable. That is the way it is, and not much can be done about it.

But those in charge of the planet pile grief on top of grief, and then they charge us for the favor.

We pay the value added tax every day in cold hard cash.

And every day, in cold hard misfortune, we pay the grief tax.


I am the biggest fan of high-spreed rail.  Today the Los Angeles Times is reporting the our most [dis]honorable governor  "award[ed] a $9-million contract today to a company led by the governor's top political advisor and his former campaign manager."

What Meritocracy?

The airwaves and cable lines are full of people who make up the news. This is one the best examples of made up stories I have seen in awhile. My right honorable friend Glenn Beck has been inventing, making it up out of whole cloth, news about Van Jones that really should get him fired. The only way I know Glenn Beck is-- at least-- misrepresenting the facts is because I was one of the persons arrested in San Francisco for protesting after the Rodney King incident.  

According to this article, Glenn Beck has been reporting that Van Jones was arrested in Los Angeles. Also according to this article Van Jones was an intern in a law firm in the Bay Area at the time Glenn Beck says he was arrested in Los Angeles .

I don't know the specifics of Van Jones being arrested in San Francisco but I do know for sure that the city of San Francisco had to compensate, as the article states, each person they arrested during this protest because I spent time in a makeshift prison under false arrest on one of the piers.

On a couple of occasions I have had words with a couple of people in this forum on the topic of Affirmative Action. When the issue came up and it was used as way to demean people of color and poor people who benefit from it. I was just over at Salon.com and Mr. Greenwald  pointed out what so many opponents of Affirmative Action miss. Affirmative Action is well and alive among the wealthy and well connected.

On one occasion someone actually told no lectured me on the virtues of meritocracy. I explained that I believe in meritocracy but we are a great distance from it. I hope reading Mr. Greenwald will illustrate the hypocrisy for those who dismiss Affirmative Action for people of color and the poor and remain silent when other benefit from it.