anti-[everything]

Attorney General Gonzales steps down:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned on Monday under pressure after months of controversy and political turmoil that President George W. Bush angrily blamed on his administration's critics in Congress.

Bush, who doggedly supported Gonzales during repeated confrontations with the Democratic-controlled Congress, said Gonzales had endured "months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department."

"It's sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeded from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons," Bush said before leaving Texas for Republican fund-raisers in New Mexico and Washington.

...

"I have lived the American dream," said Gonzales, a son of migrant workers who began working for Bush when the president was still the governor of Texas.

"Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father's best days," he said.

Gonzales should be proud of his legacy. He worked his way up from migrant worker obscurity and into the halls of Federal power. From there he was able to argue against the right of habeas corpus, oversee warrantless surveillance of US citizens, advance a legal basis for circumventing the Geneva Conventions to allow torture, and, of course, participate in the prosecutor firing debacle.

Of all of this, it was at the absurd prosecutor firings that finished him. Not even arguing for torture could keep him out of the job!

God Bless America.

Technorati Tags: Alberto Gonzales, Bush Administration, politics

Clinton unveils mandatory health care insurance plan

DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) -- Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton announced a $110 billion health care reform plan Monday that would require all Americans to have health insurance.

...

A Clinton adviser compares the plan's so-called "individual mandate" -- which requires everyone to have health insurance -- to current rules in most states that require all drivers to purchase auto insurance, according to The Associated Press.

In her plan, Clinton said families would receive tax credits to help pay for coverage. The tax credit would be designed to limit the premiums to a percentage of a family's income.

Here's another reason not to vote for Clinton. No, I'm not afraid of national healthcare. What I'm afraid of is corporate shills that will "solve" the healthcare crisis in this country by legislating in the interests of the insurance industry. Clinton's plan would require us to purchase coverage from the very industry that works tirelessly to drive down quality of care and drive up quality of profits. All this plan will do is force more citizens and tax dollars into the hands of the insurance industry. Let's be clear: the insurance industry operates to maximize profits, not coverage. Who's being subsidized here? Right-wing critics will decry this plan as "socialized" healthcare, but the only beneficiaries of this plan are corporations. Sounds like capitalism to me; the ruling class will always legislate in its favor.

Americans don't need universal insurance coverage. We need quality, universal health care.

Technorati Tags: healthcare, Clinton, politics, insurance

A: Childrens do learn.

During his first presidential campaign, Bush -- who promised to be the "education president" -- once asked: "Is our children learning?"

On Wednesday, Bush seemed to answer his own question with the same kind of grammatical twist.

"As yesterday's positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured," he said. Reuters.com

George W. Bush: America's first retarded president.

Technorati Tags: education, George W. Bush, mental retardation

Here's why we won't have real health care reform:

As Democrats Criticize, Health Care Industry Donates - New York Times:
WASHINGTON, Oct.28 — In a reversal from past election cycles, Democratic candidates for president are outpacing Republicans in donations from the health care industry, even as the leading Democrats in the field offer proposals that have caused deep anxiety in some sectors of the industry, according to campaign finance records.

Hospitals, drug makers, doctors and insurers gave candidates in both parties more than $11 million in the first nine months of this year, according to an analysis done for The New York Times by the Center for Responsive Politics, an independent group that tracks campaign finance.

In all, the Democratic presidential candidates have raised about $6.5 million from the industry, compared with nearly $4.8 million for the Republican candidates. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has amassed the most of any candidate, despite her calls for broad changes to the health care system that could pose serious financial challenges to private insurers, drug companies and other sectors.

Is it any surprise that Clinton has received the most healthcare industry dollars? Remember Clinton's mandatory insurance plan?

Which half of the ruling class are you voting for in 2008?

Technorati Tags: 2008 elections, healthcare, insurance, corporate goverment

A little kid dressed as Link just rang my door bell. The costume was homemade and kick ass. I wish I had a camera handy.

That kid wins Halloween.