I had been wanting to write something about how the MSM does not understand anything about guns and the people who use them, be it for food, sport or "spreadin' democracy", but Hippie Killer captured my feelings a lot better than I could:

http://hippiekiller.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/obviously-youre-not-a-golfer/

We could still hunt like we want here in WV if there were reasonable gun restrictions that could help prevent shit like Fort Hood. I think most of my friends agree with me even though they all belong to the NRA.

I would expect that most of the "Take Back Our Country" and the "Next Time We Bring Guns" crowd are using some hghly flammable rhetoric to ramp up the rhetoric, Most of it is basically BS rhetoric that will ultimately get ignored,

But I wonder if the the really far right extremists, most of whom are white, and the ones most likely to do something stupid, have looked at the racial and ethnic makeup of the U.S. Armed Forces and National Guard units lately?

I think that it would be our National Guard units and US Armed Forces that would be called upon to put down any nastiness. 

Not good odds.    

http://margaretandhelen.wordpress.com/

Even my redneck friends around here want universal healrhcare.

 As I  have tried to convey on these internets previously,  the Rule of Law is very important to me. It is especially important to me in the affairs of government because we have to trust a lot of other people to handle these affairs cost effectively, fairly, ethically, and honestly, among other things, and not necessarily in that order.

I heard Sen. Richard Shelby this monrning on Morning Joe demand investigations of ACORN.

I have to give you the FOX version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrmzeO5URXw

FIFTY THREE MILLION DOLLARS !!!! over ten years those awful people were given. But seriously, folks, because of my respect for the Rule of Law I personally do not have any problem with investigating and prosecuting what appears to be wilful fraud of the government.

 I mean come on, telling pimps how to hide Salvadoran teenage hookers in order to generate housing clients.At a minimum, I would say ACORN has some unusual probelms.

So I am willing to make a deal with Sen. Shelby, I will wholeheartedly support the ACORN investigations if he will wholeheartedly support vigorous investigation of the Bush Administration's activities related to the Iraq War.

Where only maybe a few trillion was lost.  

How do these guys look at themselves in the mirror?  

I just realized that a couple of folks asked me to repost this post. Thanks for your comments.

This is what I have to fight against in doing my small part to educate my fellow West Virginians about politics, current events and reality. Yes, it is an uphill battle.

There are 70,000 people slated to show up in the Ground Zero of deep Appalachia coal country of Logan County, West Virginia on Labor Day for the Friends of America Rally. The Hatfields of the Hatifield-McCoy days were mostly from Logan County. Blair Mountain, the site of the only attack by the U.S. Army against our own citizens occurred in 1921 with World War I bombers.

 Sean Hannity has been promoting the Rally all week and he will attend as the keynote speaker.

The Rally's primary sponsor is Massey Energy. For all you need to know about the good citizen practices of Massey Energy and its president Donald Blankenship see here:

  http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2009/09/03/caperton-vs-massey-redux/   

Providing musical entertainment will be those paragons of virtue Hank Williams, Jr. :

http://www.wvgazette.com/Entertainment/200909021040?page=1&build=cache 

and Ted "Don't Touch My Guns" Nugent.  There are way too many deer running around for Ted not to be seriously tempted for some out of season deer hunting.  

 I will be listening to Sean next week to see what he says about all the mountaintops (make that "mountains") removed for the sake of profits to the out of state owners. I can't wait to hear about what nice people all those coal operators are.

If Sean flies into Charleston and travels by ground to Logan, he will miss getting to see the devastation for himself.  If he goes by helicoptor, he will miss it only if he has his eyes closed the whole trip. I am betting that he does the latter because I think he is a closet chickenshit  

Did I mention that the other primary sponsor was Walker Machinery, the local Caterpillar franchise that sells the big earthmovers that mountaintop removal and strip mining operations require?? (fortunately corporate lawyer Beth Walker, who's husband is president of Walker Machinery, did not get elected to our WV State Supreme Court of Appeals in 2008).

The greatest ironies of the event are its name and that it is being held on Labor Day.  Massey is not only non-union, its mountaintop removal practices are highly mechanized and need only a few heavy equipment operators, so it employs very few people at much lesser wages than paid to even non-union deep miners. Since Massey and another large coal conglomerate, International Coal Group (anyone remember Sago?), are non union, the deep mine coal miners they utilize are paid much less in wages and benefits than other union companies with very good safety records like Consolidated Coal. Yes, Massey and ICG have poor safety records. Go to www.wvgazette.com and run a quick search.   How is that for tribute to America's labor??

Thank God that West Virginia only has three electoral votes to squander on Republican candidates every four years. I would not complain if Congress took away one or two of those votes.  

Y'all have a nice Labor Day!!

I decided that this morning I would sacrifice my sanity and watch Fair and Balanced Fox News so that I can keep up with the "Loyal" opposition

It is almost 11:00 am and I am not sure I can take much more.

Yes, they have grabbed that Van Jones shoe with their teeth and are shaking it like a pitbull in a dogfight with a pekinese.

Playing Russian music when they mention the 30 Czars of the Obama administration (they forget about the shadow government of the Bush administration).

Showing Van Jones in some small court proceeding that does not appear to have any relevance to anything other than Jones looks agitated .

Megyn (is that shorthand for My Gynecologist?) Kelly complaining about the MSM not picking up on the Van Jones stuff (WTF? seems like it has been all over the MSM for the last two weeks).

Watching some female "pollster" that I have never heard of -- do all the females that show up on Fox have pretty faces and large breasts??

OTH, but interestingly- calling the 911truth.org group "9/11 Truthers"--I kinda like that one.

Is Fox trying to negatize the word "truth" ? If anyone can pull it off they can. 

I think I will try to make it to the Massey Energy and Friends of Coal  sponsored Labor Day "Friends of America" Rally and spend the day with Sean Hannity and Ted Nugent:

  http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/wvbiker/2009/09/omg-big-coal-hannitizes-southe-1.php , where we are making the mountaintops and valleys "Fair and Balanced"

No, that is a sacrifice I cannot bear.

Lord have mercy we have a lot of work to do.

This is what I have to fight against in doing my small part to educate my fellow West Virginians about politics, current events and reality. Yes, it is an uphill battle.

There are 70,000 people slated to show up in the Ground Zero of deep Appalachia coal country of Logan County, West Virginia on Labor Day for the Friends of America Rally. The Hatfields of the Hatifield-McCoy days were mostly from Logan County. Blair Mountain, the site of the only attack by the U.S. Army against our own citizens occurred in 1921 with World War I bombers.

 Sean Hannity has been promoting the Rally all week and he will attend as the keynote speaker.

The Rally's primary sponsor is Massey Energy. For all you need to know about the good citizen practices of Massey Energy and its president Donald Blankenship see here:

  http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2009/09/03/caperton-vs-massey-redux/   

Providing musical entertainment will be those paragons of virtue Hank Williams, Jr. :

http://www.wvgazette.com/Entertainment/200909021040?page=1&build=cache 

and Ted "Don't Touch My Guns" Nugent.  There are way too many deer running around for Ted not to be seriously tempted for some out of season deer hunting.  

 I will be listening to Sean next week to see what he says about all the mountaintops (make that "mountains") removed for the sake of profits to the out of state owners. I can't wait to hear about what nice people all those coal operators are.

If Sean flies into Charleston and travels by ground to Logan, he will miss getting to see the devastation for himself.  If he goes by helicoptor, he will miss it only if he has his eyes closed the whole trip. I am betting that he does the latter because I think he is a closet chickenshit  

Did I mention that the other primary sponsor was Walker Machinery, the local Caterpillar franchise that sells the big earthmovers that mountaintop removal and strip mining operations require?? (fortunately corporate lawyer Beth Walker, who's husband is president of Walker Machinery, did not get elected to our WV State Supreme Court of Appeals in 2008).

The greatest ironies of the event are its name and that it is being held on Labor Day.  Massey is not only non-union, its mountaintop removal practices are highly mechanized and need only a few heavy equipment operators, so it employs very few people at much lesser wages than paid to even non-union deep miners. Since Massey and another large coal conglomerate, International Coal Group (anyone remember Sago?), are non union, the deep mine coal miners they utilize are paid much less in wages and benefits than other union companies with very good safety records like Consolidated Coal. Yes, Massey and ICG have poor safety records. Go to www.wvgazette.com and run a quick search.   How is that for tribute to America's labor??

Thank God that West Virginia only has three electoral votes to squander on Republican candidates every four years. I would not complain if Congress took away one or two of those votes.  

Y'all have a nice Labor Day!!

This is what I have to fight against in doing my small part to educate my fellow West Virginians about politics, current events and reality. Yes, it is an uphill battle.

There are 70,000 people slated to show up in the Ground Zero of deep Appalachia coal country of Logan County, West Virginia on Labor Day for the Friends of America Rally. The Hatfields of the Hatifield-McCoy days were mostly from Logan County. Blair Mountain, the site of the only attack by the U.S. Army against our own citizens occurred in 1921 with World War I bombers during a dispute between Coal and the unions.

 Sean Hannity has been promoting the Rally all week and he will attend as the keynote speaker.

The Rally's primary sponsor is Massey Energy. For all you need to know about the good citizen practices of Massey Energy and its president Donald Blankenship see here:

  http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2009/09/03/caperton-vs-massey-redux/   

Providing musical entertainment will be those paragons of virtue Hank Williams, Jr. :

http://www.wvgazette.com/Entertainment/200909021040?page=1&build=cache 

and Ted "Don't Touch My Guns" Nugent.  There are way too many deer running around for Ted not to be seriously tempted for some out of season deer hunting.  

 I will be listening to Sean next week to see what he says about all the mountaintops (make that "mountains") removed for the sake of profits to the out of state owners. I can't wait to hear about what nice people all those coal operators are.

If Sean flies into Charleston and travels by ground to Logan, he will miss getting to see the devastation for himself.  If he goes by helicoptor, he will miss it only if he has his eyes closed the whole trip. I am betting that he does the latter because I think he is a closet chickenshit  

Did I mention that the other primary sponsor was Walker Machinery, the local Caterpillar franchise that sells the big earthmovers that mountaintop removal and strip mining operations require?? (fortunately corporate lawyer Beth Walker, who's husband is president of Walker Machinery, did not get elected to our WV State Supreme Court of Appeals in 2008).

The greatest ironies of the event are its name and that it is being held on Labor Day.  Massey is not only non-union, its mountaintop removal practices are highly mechanized and need only a few heavy equipment operators, so it employs very few people at much lesser wages than paid to even non-union deep miners. Since Massey and another large coal conglomerate, International Coal Group (anyone remember Sago?), are non union, the deep mine coal miners they utilize are paid much less in wages and benefits than other union companies with very good safety records like Consolidated Coal. Yes, Massey and ICG have poor safety records. Go to www.wvgazette.com and run a quick search.   How is that for tribute to America's labor??

Thank God that West Virginia only has three electoral votes to squander on Republican candidates every four years. I would not complain if Congress took away one or two of those votes.  

Y'all have a nice Labor Day!!

As an attorney over the years I have examined and cross examined hundreds of people under oath  in court and out of court, in settings of stress and otherwise. My criminal clients were never guilty - first interviews with them were always challenging and sometimes fun. Most experienced attorneys will agree that sometimes it seems that all clients lie, even if only about insginificant things.

I first learned about lying, outside of interaction with my siblings, when I was a teenager attending our local version of summer Boy's State. The boy who ended up elected Sheriff of the camp fooled the real life Deputy Sheriff giving us a "scared straight" demonstration of a lie detector machine. That boy lied on the Deputy's first five questions and passed the machine. Made the Deputy look like a fool.

Some people are great liars and can fool any machine. Most of us would probably fail if we tried to lie about something that concerned  us.

Some people are obvious liars. I've seen the look, the glance aways, and the rapidly batting eyelids many, many times, under many conditions. I watched Tom Ridge on Rachel last night and the replays tonight. I am pretty sure that I saw the look. 

I was so mesmerized this morning watching and listening to Joe Scarborough, Mort Zuckerman, Mike Barnicle and the others wringing their hands over Obama's War in Afghanistan (I guess it did not start until Janauary 21, 2009) and expected increased troop numbers that my wife thought there was something wrong with me.

The whole conversation on TV  was as if Viet Nam protesters had invaded Mort, Joe and Mike's bodies.

For once, they made a whole lot of sense.

How can these folks even look themselves in the mirror knowing that the Media was part and parcel of getting us there and into Iraq ?   

Dammit, I caught some real journalistic discussion (the old fashioned kind) again this morning on Morning Joe.

Thomas Frank was being interviewed this morning obviously hawking his new book "The Wrecking Crew"  about what the Bush Rethugs did to our federal government, especially all things executive branch.

CBS's Leslie Stahl was there too.

The question raised was what was the worst thing that the Bush Administration did to the federal government.  Mr. Frank responded that aside from last fall's financial sector Bailout (I guess that one was off the charts) that Bush installing so many unqualified cronies into management positions of virtually every agency had led to an outsourcing to political non-government cronies as many government functions as possible.  

Morning Joe S. himself, being the ever vigilant blame shifter he is, tried to argue that  the Clinton Administration's alleged loosening up of oversight and regulations to make housing affordable to Americans who could not afford it led to the recession was just as bad as anything that Bush did -- you know, the old "both sides do it" false meme. 

Mr. Frank ignored that Bullshit and reminded us all that the Glass- Steagel Act  which oblitereated the last barriers between the banking and insurance and securities industries  supported by the Clinton Administration and Congress as well as Republicans and Wall Street as a much bigger factor causing present problems than anything the Clintonistas did did to increase access to home loans.

Leslie Stahl then doubleteamed Joe by agreeing with Mr. Frank.

It was so refreshing seeing real truth get in Joe's way. I guess that is what happens when you hang out with real investigative type journalists, even if just for a little bit.    

Meanwhile,  David Gregory was on just prior to Thomas Frank telling us that he will have Tavis Smiley and Joe Scarborough on Meet The Press this Sunday.

Can't f%#*ing wait.

If you have read a few of my past posts, you would might discern that I have been generally hopeful for the future of race relations in general and specifically in relations between West Virginians and the rest of the outside world.

(All right, cut it out with the Deliverance crap, please)

I was out with the boys this evening, and I learned a couple of things:

1)  There is a direct corelation between dollars spent on media message and the number of Rebel flags flying around on pickup trucks with gun racks, etc. Attitudes included.

2)  It is amazing how even some of these same fellows will start questioning themselves fundamentally after you explain how

a) "Good" insurance (Property and casualty liability, life insurance for example) is like a lubricant for the economy in that it allows people to take the risks of everyday life without having to worry about losing everything if one screws up, and,

b)  How "bad" insurance, like the health insurance industry, is basically a big ass leech in the middle of a money stream of most healthcare expenditures in this country between state/federal governments (VA, workers comp, workers conp, medicare, etc, etc,) to the actual provider of the healthcare service.

Even my "birther"/"deather" Fox devotee friend Bud, the one with the Medicare kidney, was asking intelligent questions and seemed dumbfounded at the results.  

These guys are already hearing from GP doctors about how they aren't making big money. My friends want to know where the f@#k the money is going. I want to keep them out of their pickup trucks.  

I don't know what to think except that we have to keep educating.

Everyone. Everywhere.    

As is my habit, while getting ready for work this morning, I turned on Morning Joe and happened upon an interview with some healthcare expert whose name I did not catch. What caught my attention is that the interviewee sounded intelligent and sounded as if he actually had read the House bill and knew what he was talking about (he was not talking in soundbites). He was easy to distinguish from all the other talking heads I have heard on TV since he was intelligently discussing the healthcare issues.

Even more surprising and what really woke me up was Joe S. making factual salient points, i.e., drawing out from the interviewee that the Administration is talking a cost of $ 1 Trillion that is spread out over ten years, not per year.   

I guess Joe S figured out that there won't be getting elected to anything in the future unless he starts acting smarter. 

Whatever it takes to see some real journalism on TV, I'll take it.

This week I was visiting with an old friend who runs a major hospital  in an Eastern Seaboard metropolis (I feel that I must protect his identity).  Of course it was over a few beers (who needs truth serum when you have beer-Obama knew what he was doing last Thursday) and I found the conversation remarkable for what I did not expect.

My friend is fairly closed mouth about his politics, especially around me, but I suspect he voted Red last fall.   

Not being able to help myself, I had to ask about his thoughts on the current push by the Congress and Obama Administration on healthcare reform. In a hushed tone, he told me that things absolutely have to change.  He wholeheartedly agreed with me that the current system without a universal single payer plan by the government was a huge drag on our economy, especially small business. His hospital was basically getting reimbursed by the federal and state government only 10 cents on the dollar for the public contribution to the current methodology of providing for the uninsured (i.e., ER medical care).

He also said the pharmaceutical companies and medical equipment corporations are out of control.

Then the kicker that I did not realize: My friend told me that the pediatricians and general practitioners, who are the vanguard of healthcare system, in his metropolitan area are killing themselves to make $100,000 per year.   

Having spent a little time around south Florida medical specialists at the country clubs and marinas, cross examining them in and out of Court, this anecdotal factoid bothered me.  I investigated a little further and found this:

 http://www.erieri.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Research.Medical-Doctor-salary-survey-data-details&PositionId=26836&CityId=300

The information from this website appears to be trustworthy, but I will let others point out any fundamental problems with the reliability of this data.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that outside of Metro LA and Metro NYC, the average salary for a medical doctor across the nation in its metro areas is only between $160,000 and $ 172,000. Some automobile salesmen make more than that.  Hell, I thought it would be at least $250,000 to $300,000.

Where is the MSM on this?  Where is all the money going then ?? 

Seems like the Federal government could easily come up with a single payer public option with a salary structure that attracts good doctors for a basic level of competent health care with the money that is running through the system presently.

After several more beers, my friend and I decided that we didn't need no stinkin' Harry and Louise to bring about true healthcare reform. 

My friend agreed a public option single payer system was essential, a universal health care system preferable.

I agreed that if we had a universal system or public option, that the healthcare providers would be shielded from medical malpractice liability except in intentional or grossly wanton incidents, and even then there would be reasonable damage caps.  

Senators and Congressmen, it ain't so hard. Have a nice vacation.  See you in September.