Clearly Hillary Clinton Never Saw Rocky I

Today Senator Clinton will compare herself to the fictional boxer Rocky Balboa. I don't know which multi-million dollar paid consultant came up with this, but Hillary Clinton is a fool to use this line. I know he is a beloved character, there's even a statue of Sylvester Stallone Rocky in the sports complex area (formerly at the Art museum). The character was definitely a fighter and had true PA spirit but there's just one problem.

From ABC News:

In a speech in Philadelphia today, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, will compare herself to Philly icon Rocky Balboa.

"Well, could you imagine if Rocky Balboa had gotten half way up those Art Museum steps and said, 'Well, I guess that’s about far enough?'" Clinton will ask, according to her prepared remarks released to the press.

"Let me tell you something, when it comes to finishing the fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common," she will tell the Pennsylvania A.F.L.-C.I.O. audience. "I never quit. I never give up. And neither do the American people."

Um….Senator?

Rocky lost.

It was a split decision, but the judges (superdelegates?) awarded the fight to Rocky's black opponent, Apollo Creed.

I know that the movie is more than thirty years old but if you are going to reference a movie and compare a character in it to yourself it is best that you know the plot line. Now to be fair to Rocky...and Senator Clinton, Rocky did go on to win in later films so maybe that's just the ticket for Hillary, come back and try again another year.

This Week In Iraq

The mainstream media won't be publicizing information like this too much so stay tuned to Democracy Now and similar media outlets:

Majority Of Doctors Now Support Nationalized Health Care

The debate for national health care isn't new in this country. Way back at the tail end of the New Deal era, President Truman tried to initiate a national health care plan like our brethren in Europe did at the time but the AMA helped to crush that in its infancy by "reaching out" to their doctors. Since then health care has become corporatized and we all know how that has been going. The insurance industry has also added considerable woes to the way medicine is practiced and not only patients have begun to realize it.

From RawStory:

Of more than 2,000 doctors surveyed, 59 percent said they support legislation to establish a national health insurance program, while 32 percent said they opposed it, researchers reported in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

The 2002 survey found that 49 percent of physicians supported national health insurance and 40 percent opposed it.

"Many claim to speak for physicians and represent their views. We asked doctors directly and found that, contrary to conventional wisdom, most doctors support national health insurance," said Dr. Aaron Carroll of the Indiana University School of Medicine, who led the study.

"As doctors, we find that our patients suffer because of increasing deductibles, co-payments, and restrictions on patient care," said Dr. Ronald Ackermann, who worked on the study with Carroll. "More and more, physicians are turning to national health insurance as a solution to this problem."

It is the solution to this problem. Clearly the "free market" has done nothing but enrich a few corporate executives at the top of the health industry food chain and penalized the rest of us as a result. It is time to make a change and a nationalized health care system is that change.

WalMart Responds To Keith Olbermann, Fails Miserably

Sometimes I feel bad for the people that have to try and defend the actions of WalMart. It might even come close to being as bad as Dana Perino's job. Then again, like Dana Perino, they chose to apply for it, so screw them....and screw Daphne Moore for trying to defend the corporate behemoth for suing an employee who was hit by a truck and wanted to take her settlement money away. She had the chutzpah to respond to Keith Olbermann's excoriating remarks against the corrupt corporation.

Here's the WalMart excuse:

"This is a very sad case and we understand that people will naturally have an emotional and sympathetic reaction. While the Shank case involves a tragic situation, the reality is that the health plan is required to protect its assets so that it can pay the future claims of other associates and their family members. These plans are funded by associate premiums and company contributions. Any money recovered is returned to the health plan, not to the business. This is done out of fairness to everyone who contributes to and benefits from the plan. The Supreme Court recently declined to hear an appeal of the case, which concludes all litigation. While Wal-Mart's benefit plan was entitled to more than the amount that remained in the Shank trust, the plan only recovered the funds remaining in that trust," which according to reports amounted to about $277,000.

Aww, you only got $277,000 of the money awarded to her? This woman suffered brain damage and who knows how terrible her recovery was/still is and WalMart has the audacity to say they are benevolent because they didn't go after money that Shank didn't have? Seriously, they are evil, evil, evil. I do not believe for one second that WalMart can then shift the blame on to the health plan, especially since WalMart dictates terms with whomever they deal with. Their employee Debbie Shank paid for insurance through her premium and she should be entitled to be cared for, not to be financially raped by WalMart and their tool of a health insurance company.

Keith Olbermann is right, they truly are the worst person in the world.

Jim Hightower Talks About His New Book

"Swim Against the Current" is Hightower's latest book that talks about breaking corporate control over our country:

Chris Matthews Is Still A Moron

After all these years of being on television, we shouldn't expect the pundit-extraordinaire Chris Matthews to stop bloviating to the nth degree. His latest ridiculous comment concerned George Bush and baseball. You might have seen the 40,000+ fans booing him yesterday in Washington as the Nationals started their season and ol' Georgie threw out the first ceremonial pitch. That is to be expected. What came out of left field (pun intended) was Matthews' observation.

From The Huffington Post:

MSNBC's Chris Matthews told his viewers Monday that the hearty round of boos that greeted President George W. Bush when he threw out the inaugural pitch at Washington D.C.'s new baseball stadium weren't a big deal, because all politicians get booed at ball games, and Bush "showed a lot of guts" throwing out the pitch.

A lot of guts? No Chris, you have a lot of guts when you open that big, fat mouth of yours every night and manage to offend everyone outside of the Beltway.

Investigating Siegelman Censorship In Alabama

Ex-Governor Don Siegelman is on his way out of jail following the overwhelming amount of new evidence in the case. So now that Don is on the road to vindication and Karl Rove is on his way into being investigated for his role in the matter, some people are turning their eye back to Huntsville, Alabama and the local CBS affiliate that censored the 60 Minutes special covering the case. Some of those people work at the Federal Communications Commission.

From Southern Studies:

Remember the curious glitch that prevented a CBS affliliate in northern Alabama from airing the recent 60 Minutes' report -- and that report only -- on the politics behind the controversial prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman? Well, the Federal Communications Commission has launched an inquiry into the incident, Reuters reports:

The FCC issued a "notice of inquiry" to WHNT, a CBS affiliate in Huntsville, Alabama, in connection with an outage that cut off a segment of the February 24 broadcast of "60 Minutes," an FCC spokeswoman said.

WHNT, which has blamed the black-out on equipment failure, has 30 days to respond with an explanation of what happened in the incident.

The inquiry came at the request of Commissioner Michael Copps, one of two Democratic appointees on the five-member body. The agency's chairman, Kevin Martin, is a Republican.

WHNT is owned by an investment firm whose founder's family has close ties to the Bushes, and it's managed by Local TV, a company headed by a former Clear Channel Communications executive and major Bush contributor. After initially blaming the blackout on a CBS transmission problem, the station management has since maintained that the problem was caused at the receiving end by an equipment failure that cut off the feed. The station later re-aired the segment twice.

It is good of WHNT to re-air the broadcast, but it seems that they only did this under intense pressure from the outside world. That whole "transmission problem" is a crock of shit and the fact that the station has ties to the Bushes (and subsequently Karl Rove) leads many to be suspicious of why the affiliate went to the level of censorship.

Finally, A Hillary Clinton Ad I Can Get Behind!

Congestion Pricing's Fate Being Decided Now

It may not be the only hurdle for the controversial bill but the New York City Council is deciding if it will pass through their jurisdiction this afternoon. The proposal needs the blessing of the state as well but those prospects look good so far. The conventional wisdom here is that Quinn called the vote today because she came up with the votes. And how might she have gotten that sudden courage?

From The Gothamist:

Mayor Bloomberg appears to have the necessary votes to get congestion pricing passed in the City Council, because the Council scheduled a vote on the matter for this afternoon. The fact a vote has been suddenly scheduled is interpreted as a sign that fellow supporter Council Speaker Christine Quinn has enough votes for approval. The Mayor must have spent his weekend bending ears and twisting arms!

A critical amendment was made to the statewide version of the bill over the weekend that may have changed minds. According to the NY Sun, the congestion pricing plan will be linked to a $1 billion contribution from the Port Authority to the MTA's five-year capital spending budget. The funds from the Port Authority, a joint NY-NJ state agency, allayed some concerns New Jersey residents wouldn't be paying as much as New Yorkers traveling into Manhattan.

There's nothing quite like the sound of "one billion dollars" to help switch a few crucial votes your way. Getting the PANY/NJ to cough that up must have taken some serious arm twisting in of itself. We'll see what the final vote is shortly, but this thing should be in the bag as far as NYC goes.

Bush Gets Booed...Over And Over And Over Again

Today is the last day of March and this specific time of year means one thing, the start of the Major League Baseball season. Teams from across the country have done their warm-up games in Arizona and Florida and are now taking to their respective fields across America. Unfortunately for one crowd, President Bush prefers to throw out the ceremonial first pitch just a few miles from the White House.

From RawStory:

President Bush met with a mixed reception this evening as he threw the 2008 inaugural pitch at the new Nationals Park, built for the Washington Nationals baseball team.

With a quick introduction and a wave, Bush makes a high pitch to Nationals manager Manny Acta and proceeds to shake his hand. The boos reignite as Bush waves once more and exits.

Of course, don't take my word for it, watch the video yourself and you'll hear the chorus of boos for every second that our disgrace of a President is on that field. It seems that no matter where he goes, disapproval follows. Too bad for George the Secret Service couldn't put the crowd in a First Amendment zone.

There Is No Bravery, War Is Sadness

Such a beautiful song, and a terrible reminder about what war is really all about:

Tuzla Girl Shocked By Clinton's Comments

In the information age, news travels fast around the globe. Even Senator Clinton's "misspoken" words about her experience in Tuzla has made it to Tuzla. Now that little girl that read a poem to the then First Lady has heard about the situation and has had a chance to speak about what happened and how this whole thing made her felt.

From The NY Post:

SARAJEVO, Bosnia - The Bosnian girl who famously read a poem to Hillary Rodham Clinton during her 1996 visit to the war-torn country is shocked - and her countrymen infuriated - that the former first lady claimed to have dodged sniper fire that day.

Emina Bicakcic, now 20 and studying to become a doctor, told The Post she stood on the tarmac at the air base in Tuzla, greeted Clinton and even had time to share the lines of verse she'd written - all without fear of attack from an unseen enemy.

"I was surprised when I heard this," Bicakcic said, referring to Clinton's assertion that she braved snipers upon landing, ducking and sprinting to military vehicles.

Other Bosnians were also amused at her exaggerations of that day and said that it is ridiculous that she exploited their sufferings for her political aims. Although the soon-to-be doctor has declined to pick a candidate (I assume she is more preoccupied with her studies and Bosnian politics) in the race here and Obama has said she can stay in as long as she wants, it really is time to end this primary and get on to more important matters, like beating McCain.