House Republicans Under Attack on Medicare Overhaul – NYTimes.com

Hopefully, the GOP has just committed Political suicide….

It’s starting to sound like it….

In central Florida, a Congressional town meeting erupted into near chaos on Tuesday as attendees accused a Republican lawmaker of trying to dismantle Medicare while providing tax cuts to corporations and affluent Americans.

At roughly the same time in Wisconsin, Representative Paul D. Ryan, the architect of the Republican budget proposal, faced a packed town meeting, occasional boos and a skeptical audience as he tried to lay out his party’s rationale for overhauling the health insurance program for retirees.

In a church theater here on Tuesday evening, a meeting between Representative Allen B. West and some of his constituents began on a chaotic note, with audience members quickly on their feet, some heckling him and others loudly defending him. “You’re not going to intimidate me,” Mr. West said.

After 10 days of trying to sell constituents on their plan to overhaul Medicare, House Republicans in multiple districts appear to be increasingly on the defensive, facing worried and angry questions from voters and a barrage of new attacks from Democrats and their allies.

The proposed new approach to Medicare — a centerpiece of a budget that Republican leaders have hailed as a courageous effort to address the nation’s long-term fiscal problems — has been a constant topic at town-hall-style sessions and other public gatherings during a two-week Congressional recess that provided the first chance for lawmakers to gauge reaction to the plan.

via House Republicans Under Attack on Medicare Overhaul – NYTimes.com.

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Levi Johnston’s New Book: Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin’s Crosshairs

You know this had to have been ghost-written….

There’s no way he can read and write….

But it’s still going to piss off Sarah Palin big-time…

Not to mention Bristol Palin, his ex….

And what is it with 20 year-olds writing memoirs?????

They haven’t done enough to even justify an essay, much less a book….

This guy has really stretched his 15 minutes of fame…

From VanityFair.com:

One by one, every single citizen of Alaska is publishing a memoir. (Is this some lingering consequence of the Alaska Purchase? Let’s call the phenomenon “Sarah’s Folly.”) Next up is Levi Johnston, high-school athlete, former Bristol Palin paramour, and Vanity Fair essayist. “I want to tell the truth about my close relationship with the Palins,” he said in a statement. “I’m doing this for me, for my boy Tripp and for the country.”

Johnston’s forthcoming book will be called, alarmingly, Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin’s Crosshairs. That Johnston himself is an avid hunter is an irony we can only imagine did not come across the author’s crosshairs.

via Guess the Sentences in Levi Johnston’s New Book, Deer in the Headlights: My Life in Sarah Palin’s Crosshairs | VF Daily | Vanity Fair.

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Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?

Hat Tip to Towleroad.com…and to Budweiser!

Debate amongst yourselves….

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Jon Bon Jovi’s New Restaurant Is Pay-What-You-Can

This is really cool…

From TakePart.com:

For anyone who’s living on a prayer—or looking to give love a good name—a new opportunity is springing up in Red Bank, New Jersey: it’s Jon Bon Jovi’s Soul Kitchen, a restaurant where patrons pay what they can afford and volunteers help run the restaurant.

The Soul Kitchen, which will enjoy a grand opening this Spring, is founded on the principle that a healthy meal can feed the soul. Diners can pick any item on the menu and pay what they’re able. Patrons who don’t have money can volunteer an hour of their time in the kitchen to cover the cost of their meal, and anyone who can afford to give a little more than the recommended donation of $10 will be helping to feed someone with less means.

Most importantly, stresses the Kitchen’s website, the restaurant is a place for conversation and community. Volunteer staff serve diners with respect and friendliness, and patrons are encouraged to meet and greet new friends.

via Bon Jovi’s New Restaurant Is Pay-What-You-Can | TakePart – Inspiration to Action.

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Goodbye, Phoebe Snow– ‘Poetry Man’ singer, Dies at 60

The amazingly gifted singer Phoebe Snow passed away today.  She was very special.

My partner, Steve, and I were privileged to see her perform at “Birdland” in New York just a couple of years ago.  We sat at a ringside table not more than a few feet from her.  That will always be a great memory for us….

She was an amazing singer and an amazing person….

Here is an excerpt from her obituary and a CBS Profile.

I’ll also post a couple of video clips of her performing…

NEW YORK – It wasn’t long after the release of “Poetry Man,” the breezy, jazzy love song that would make Phoebe Snow a star, that the singer experienced another event that would dramatically alter her life.

In 1975, she gave birth to a daughter, Valerie Rose, who was found to be severely brain-damaged. Her husband split from her soon after the baby was born. And, at a time when many disabled children were sent to institutions, Snow decided to keep her daughter at home and care for the child herself.

The decision to be Valerie’s primary caretaker would lead her to abandon music for a while and enter into ill-fated business decisions in the quest to stay solvent enough to take care of Valerie.

Snow, who worked her way back into the music performing world in the 1980s and continued to perform in recent years, died on Tuesday from complications of a brain hemorrhage she suffered in January 2010, said Rick Miramontez, her longtime friend and public relations representative. She was 60.

Snow never regretted her decision to put aside music so she could focus on Valerie’s care. She was devastated when her daughter, who was not expected to live beyond her toddler years, died in 2007 at 31.

“She was my universe,” she told the website PopEntertainment.com that year. “She was the nucleus of everything. I used to wonder, am I missing something? No. I had such a sublime, transcendent experience with my child. She had fulfilled every profound love and intimacy and desire I could have ever dreamed of.”

After her stroke last year, Snow endured bouts of blood clots, pneumonia and congestive heart failure, said her manager, Sue Cameron.

“The loss of this unique and untouchable voice is incalculable,” Cameron said. “Phoebe was one of the brightest, funniest and most talented singer-songwriters of all time and, more importantly, a magnificent mother to her late brain-damaged daughter, Valerie, for 31 years. Phoebe felt that was her greatest accomplishment.”

Known as a folk guitarist who made forays into jazz and blues, Snow put her stamp on soul classics such as “Shakey Ground,” “Love Makes a Woman” and “Mercy, Mercy Mercy” on over a half dozen albums.

via Phoebe Snow, ‘Poetry Man’ singer, dies at 60 – Yahoo! News.

Here is a clip of a profile from CBS a couple of years ago:

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The GOP’s 2012 Campaign Plan: Disqualify Eligible Voters | | AlterNet

This really is a disgusting tactic…

And very wide-spread….

While there are almost no documented examples of “voter fraud”, the GOP keeps claiming the need for more regulations….

Seems to me, they doth protest too much….

They also know most Americans support the policies of the Democrats, but GOP voters vote more regularly.  They are trying to do everything possible to drive down legitimate Democratic voting….

Across the country, Republican lawmakers are resurrecting one of their party’s favorite but most cowardly tactics to quote, win elections. They are seeking to create new barriers to voting by passing stricter voter ID laws intended to prevent the very electoral segments who helped to elect President Obama in 2008 from receiving ballots in 2012, particularly the young, poor and elderly, according to voting rights groups.

“Touted under the guise of addressing so-called ‘voter fraud,’ the proposals are part of a quiet but coordinated effort to reduce the voting strength of minority voters who saw greater turnout in 2008,” reads the Advancement Project’s new report, “What’s Wrong With This Picture: New Voter ID Proposals Part of a National Push to Turn back the Clock on Voting Rights.” “The 2008 elections saw record turnout by black and brown voters, offering a glimpse of what a more equitable voter participation might look like. The photo ID proposals are part of a concerted effort to turn back the clock on voting rights.”

via .

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State Dept. Wants to Make It Harder to Get a Passport

Why do I have the sneaking suspicion this is to discourage International travel by US Citizens so they won’t realize how bad some things are here compared to the rest of the world….

Little things like Internet Service and Mass Transit that work much better in other countries than here….

And god forbid the travel on an airline like Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, Air France or Singapore Airlines that show how flying should be- not how the flying cattle cars that pass for US airlines do it….

Oh, and fresh food that isn’t full of additives and mass-produced on corporate farms….

Just little things….

From ConsumerTraveler.com:

The U.S. Department of State is proposing a new Biographical Questionnaire for some passport applicants: The proposed new  Form DS-5513 asks for all addresses since birth; lifetime employment history including employers’ and supervisors names, addresses, and telephone numbers; personal details of all siblings; mother’s address one year prior to your birth; any “religious ceremony” around the time of birth; and a variety of other information.  According to the proposed form, “failure to provide the information requested may result in … the denial of your U.S. passport application.”

The State Department estimated that the average respondent would be able to compile all this information in just 45 minutes, which is obviously absurd given the amount of research that is likely to be required to even attempt to complete the form.

via State Dept. wants to make it harder to get a passport.

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No Inflation-Unless You Eat, Drink, Drive or Fly

Amazing how Government statistics exclude most of the things most people do every day….

From CNN.com:

Avoid all of the food and beverage companies that are raising prices and you’ll be shedding pounds in no time. Of course, you may not be eating or drinking much of anything. But that’s another story.

McDonald’s (MCD, Fortune 500), Hershey (HSY, Fortune 500) and Coca-Cola (KO, Fortune 500) all announced new price hikes or reiterated previous increases in their latest quarterly earnings reports over the past few days. The reason is obvious. Commodities are running amok.

It’s costing restaurants and food makers a lot more money to produce or buy food as the price of cattle, wheat, sugar, corn and just about every other agricultural commodity has surged in the past year.

And even though the Federal Reserve may think that higher commodity costs are “transitory” — which is the econobabble way of saying “Don’t worry about it!” — companies aren’t so sure.

That could be bad news for consumers, who are already coping with soaring gasoline prices.

MORE:   Food and beverage companies raising prices — The Buzz – Apr. 26, 2011.

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Happy Birthday, Ella Fitzgerald

What is it with so many great singers/performers having their birthdays so close together??

There must be something to astrology after all….

The late, great Ella Fitzgerald would have been 93 today.

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The FDNY/ New York Firemen Calendar is Back!

I have several friends-male and female- who lived for this calendar…

It was discontinued a few years ago due to some, uh, controversy…

It is now being revived-mainly because it raised a ton of cash for the FDNY….

I’ll be buying some copies of this for some of my friends for Christmas again this year.

They’ve been making do with substitute Firemen Calendars until now….

But there is only one FDNY Fireman’s Calendar and, according to them,  it’s unbeatable.

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