Sun today, mild temperatures: 40s.  I'm thinking of Phil and wondering if the storm has hit Iowa yet.

Puddle, thank you so much for the summary and link to the health care bill.  That's great for those of us who have no intention of reading 2000 pages.

Tom Bearse, thanks for the perspective.  A friend remarked recently that for its time Don't Ask, Don't Tell was revolutionary.  I think it's a measure of the Information Age that what was revolutionary 15 years ago is seen as a bad compromise today. 

The BBC, stories of people helping people throughout the world.  An Actress creating art that allows people to experience what young women sold into sexual slavery have experienced - seven cargo containers in London that people walk through detailing a young woman's experience.  Women helping women who were raped by Serbs in the ethnic cleansing.  Lots of good happening out there along with the bad.

Also, how much money we have contributed to infrastructure in Iraq and what some of the results have been, plus a reassessment of what we should do next and what Iraqi people have to do themselves.

Finally, talked to man who lived and worked 8 years in Africa and is active in the Estes Park Community.  He said that the most successful people who work in politics are pleasantly persistent.  He sees the result on the Town Council.  Those who lose their tempers and rage always lose.  He saw this in Africa as well.

Have a fine morning.

Rain and windy in GR.  All the leaves are off except for one persistent maple that is still green.  Go figure.

A big thank you to Denise for the wonderful drug information.

My husband grew up in Grand Rapids.  His father was an attorney for the state in the Conservation Dept.

I think it will be fascinating to see what Obama decides with respect to Afghanistan.  I do have faith in his ethics and his brilliance.  To think of what might have been our situation had McCain and Palin elected makes me shudder.  We dodged a bullet on that one. Whatever were the Republicans and much of the country thinking?  Rather, they weren't thinking.

I have a dog with a sense of humor.  I go outside to hang up the laundry and she runs at me full tilt and dodges at the last second. She's so fast.  I swear I can hear her laughing.  I think of myself as Inspector Clouseau and Molly as Cato who lies in wait to attack me.  She's a very funny dog.

And, those are my political comments this morning as I'm off to do some work I've avoided all week.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/10/29/2112427.aspx

The Obama administration, via a statement from the Treasury Department, is officially asking Congress to extend the tax credit for first-time homebuyers.

From the release:

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovancalled on Congress to approve three important measures to improve housing and the housing market for Americans: extension of the First Time Homebuyers Tax Credit for a limited period, extension of higher loan limits for home mortgages, and secure funding for the Housing Trust Fund. "We welcome efforts taken by Congress to extend the First Time Homebuyers Tax Credit for a limited period. This credit has brought new families into the housing market and contributed to three consecutive months of rising home prices nationwide," said Secretaries Geithner and Donovan.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE59U05420091031

Nine more banks seized.  Sis used to work at Heritage Pullman after her 28 year stint at ShoreBank Chicago.  Pullman was gobbled up by First Bank Oak Park (FBOP), which now has been brought into the U.S. Bancorp family.  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The largest institution to fail in the current financial crisis was Washington Mutual, which boasted $307 billion in assets when it was shuttered in September 2008.

U.S. Bancorp on Friday acquired the nine banks that had been held by FBOP Corp, picking up $18.4 billion in assets and $15.4 billion of deposits.

Visibly worried employees lined up to file into Cal National's head offices in the heart of a deserted downtown Los Angeles on a chilly Friday evening, where they had their employers' fate explained to them, regulators said.

"We're getting ready to turn everything over to U.S. Bank," said Roberta Valdez, a spokeswoman for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, which helped supervise the transfer of FBOP's assets. "They will continue to operate as normal in the interim," she added, referring to lenders acquired from FBOP.

U.S. Bancorp -- which has been buying up distressed assets this year -- is picking up the lenders once owned by FBOP, a private Illinois group with over $18 billion in assets that owned banks in Texas, Illinois, Arizona and California.

Perspective from Democratic Strategist:

At the end of this important week on the health care front, one thing clear is that the differences between what the House and Senate are likely to vote on are not as large as everyone expected a few weeks ago. Harry Reid's advancing a public option bill with (it appears) a state opt-out, and the House is going with a public option that will negotiate rates instead of pegging payments to Medicare. Had the Senate gone with a weak trigger or something like co-ops, or the House had insisted on the Medicare peg, it could have caused some very serious problems down the road.

However you happen to feel about the substance of these nuances, anything that steadily narrows the gaps between Senate and House Democrats is a step towards enactment of health reform this year. Or at least that's how it looks to me from an internet cafe a very long way from Washington.

Provide a tax credit and other financial incentives to enable all taxpayers to invest more reliably in socially and environmentally responsible companies that employ Americans;

and,

Establish enforceable worker rights (e.g. freedom of association, prohibition against job discrimination) and environmental safeguards as cornerstones for all future U.S. trade agreements;

Veteran congressional staffer Bill Goold is doing some creative strategic thinking over at the HuffPo, where today he shares "Building Progressive Staying Power," proposing the establishment of "a progressive legislative exchange" for shaping and refining ideas into legislative reforms. As Goold rolls it out:

The resurgent progressive movement needs to think more long-term, come together quickly, and systematically build a Progressive Legislative Exchange to share and hone a steady, perpetual stream of the best, actionable ideas that progressives and liberals, near and far, have to offer for public and private sector problem-solving. This is a very egalitarian, 21st century idea whose time has come and is all the more attainable because of the Internet and other far-flung communication capabilities. Progressive leaders and activists have it within our grasp to organize and create a permanent incubator and clearinghouse for conceptualizing and refining progressive legislation to serve the public interest and address myriad problems confronting our nation and our world that will connect and empower imaginative thinkers inside and outside of Congress as never before.

 

Sharon Lerner at The Nation notes:


October 30, 2009


.....

.....yet another complication has emerged: so far, reform legislation has failed to require insurers to cover some basic preventive services for women, or prevent providers from charging extra for them.

None of the bills emerging from the House and Senate require insurers to cover all the elements of a standard gynecological "well visit," leaving essential care such as pelvic exams, domestic violence screening, counseling about sexually transmitted diseases, and, perhaps most startlingly, the provision of birth control off the list of basic benefits all insurers must cover. snip 

women could wind up having to pay for some of these services out of their own pockets.

snip

No one wants the process to collapse under a mountain of requests from special interest groups à la the Clinton mess in 1993. But women, half of all adult patients, are not a special interest group. And since both the House and Senate bills include lists of specific services that must be covered by health insurance companies and be provided without asking patients for additional money, it's hard to understand why all the services provided in a basic well-woman visit to the gynecologist isn't on them along with maternity care, newborn care, pediatric dental and vision services, and substance use disorder services.

The fault for the initial omission can be laid at the feet of Democrats, .....

Either way, the irony of letting anti-abortion sentiment undercut the coverage of birth control is that it will likely lead to more abortions. "If women can't get this kind of primary care, there are three clear outcomes: cancer, abortions and infertility," says Anne Davis, medical director of Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, and a practicing Ob/Gyn in New York City. Davis cites the facts that untreated sexually transmitted infections can lead to infertility, and that pelvic exams help diagnose cervical cancers. As for the importance of covering--and not requiring women to kick in additional money for--birth control, Davis says, "It's fundamental primary preventive care. So if we don't do this, we're causing a lot of abortions."

Pfizer really hurt itself by outsourcing product development.  The magic word in business is fungibility where all workers in the same job classification have the same skills.  Thus, there is no difference between engineers in GR and engineers in India.  Since engineers in India work for more then a third less, the corporate response is to offshore as much work as possible to low-cost suppliers.  Besides screwing the local folks, they are turning over their intellectual property (IP) to workers in companies that don’t recognize IP and copyright laws.

Pfizer gleefully laid off many, many engineers, sent their work offshore, and now gets the joy of having these foreign workers compete directly against Pfizer making their won generic drugs as the legitimate drugs are being introduced.  Pfizer sues, and eventually wins and the Indian company is ordered by the Indian government to stop production and sales.  By this time, the Indian company has made a ton of money and Pfizer has a difficult time recovering their engineering and development costs.

You would think the Pfizer management would decide to make the drugs in this country.  But nope, they continue to offshore as much as possible.

I was thinking about Pat’s wish for Obama and reread Jim Wallis’s suggestion to widen the discussion and get NGOs and other peace-orientated groups involved….
Why not widen the discussion with NGOs beyond Afgan into a discussion about world-wide violence and poverty in general?
I am always asking for a Grand Strategy and that it must be defensive; and that moral legitimacy trumps strategic and tactical. Bringing world-wide poverty which breeds terror and violence to a level of discussion not heard of in this country would allow us to get the moral legitimacy back.

We actually had a chance to do this in the ‘68 Tet offensive. As we knew it was coming, we were covering a large hamlet that was very friendly to us and would be a likely target. For some reason, we were relieved by another company and after we left, and before they had a chance to settle in, they were heavily attacked. The local population was treated horribly by the VC with many families hacked into tiny pieces, and our folks were badly mauled. We turned around and drove the attackers away and saved as many of the local folks as possible. That is one of the few battles that we were the good guys. The locals begged us to stay to keep the VC away. In typical brain-dead fashion, we refused; went on a jungle campaign after the remains of the attacking force; that promptly came around in back of us and wiped the hamlet out; and then attacked us from our rear. Of course, we maintained the magic 10:1 kill ratio (even if it was by imaginary dead bad guys) so were praised for winning a great battle.

Anyway, this actually would be a State Department action. Obama may have been his own worst enemy by appointing warmongers to state such as Hillary, Eckleberry and Holbrooke.
This would be a great chance to use Bubba and Carter to promote world peace and eradication of poverty. It also requires a defensive grand strategy.

I fear Obama will end up chasing the enemy thru the weeds; like we did..

But, after all is said and done, Howard Dean is still first:))

~~~~~

Weather still beautiful here, mid 80's, sunny and dry--but for how long? We need some rain soon.

Mark Weisbrot writes about the various political war hawks that Meet the Press has had on their shows with absolutely no one speaking for the anti-war Americans which number at least half the population. And the hawks are not all Republicans.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-weisbrot/when-the-media-is-a-big-p_b_339965.ht

I found this article enlightening in many ways. I do hope Obama doesn't watch MTP if we are ever to get out of Afghanistan:))

gotta go...lots of halloweenie stuff going on.
We are having a big bon-fire (wind and rain permitting) for the neigherhood kids. We have a lot of trees which the kids hide in there and scare each other. It ends up being a maze. We have adequate outdoor lighting. Lots of fun, the kids get a chance to play, and the adults kibitz which each other.

... a general review by the Progressive...

The Pluses and Minuses of Pelosi’s Package

--cont-

... a general review by the Progressive...

The Pluses and Minuses of Pelosi’s Package

First, it doesn’t allow the government to set the reimbursement rates. Instead, the insurance companies would be empowered to negotiate those rates with the government.

Second, it appears that Pelosi’s public option would not be open to everybody. Like Obama’s plan, not many of us would be able to join it. And I wish it would have kept Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s amendment to allow states to experiment with universal coverage.

I also believe that true health care reform must include health care coverage for everybody in America, not just citizens. And this bill doesn’t provide that. Health care is a human right. It doesn’t matter whether you are here without proper documentation or not; you deserve health care. And, from an economic standpoint, it’s foolish to deny health care to the undocumented, since they will end up going to the emergency room for costly care when they could have been treated initially, at much less cost, if they had health care coverage.

Hope this doesn't make you uncomfortable - but what do you think is happening to 95 % of us ?

video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7382297202053077236&ei=LJbsSubrGdLYlQfw_YzlAg&q=capitalism+hits+the+fan&hl=en#