Kevin, I would be very surprised if there were a single journalist listening to Carney yesterday who didn’t believe that everything he said was a flat-out lie.

Speaking of whistleblowers, yesterday I received and watched my free copy of Robert Greenwald’s new movie, War on Whistleblowers–highly recommended. Although the main movie focuses on four particular whistleblowers, in the bonus materials, several other whistleblowers are interviewed with whose stories I was unfamiliar. Rather than finding the material depressing, I was incredibly inspired by the decency and bravery of these whistleblowers.

I, too, was thinking about this as the various scandals have unfolded. Obama will be lucky to keep his job. The editorials are suggesting that O is simply too incompetent to be POTUS–”overwhelmed by the position”. I’m just hoping the Dems start to slowly abandon him. They won’t want to be seen as being too obvious, of course.

As for immigration reform, after waste-of-space Zuckerberg’s fiasco, and everyone beginning to figure out that this is all about specialty visas to replace even more American workers, I think immigration reform is dead also.

That’s good to hear about state affiliates of NARAL, especially since it was Partnership for Civil Justice that lead the way on the morning-after pill.

Robin and Jessica, I’ve read that college-age women and women in their 20s are less likely to be pro-choice than we were back in the 1970s. Why do you think that might be, especially when polls show increasing numbers of young people are no longer religious?

Also, do you think the fact that NARAL is nowhere to be seen in these state legislative fights is part of the problem?

An important point. One way we were successful in pushing the ERA back in the 1970s was to ask men how they would feel if their daughters were unable to obtain a job they were qualified for, or if that daughter were to be paid less simply because she was a woman. When the men began to see how it affected their own families, they voted for equality.

Thank you, Chris. I only knew your dad from his excellent writings here. What a special man he was! You are very courageous and generous to share your thoughts with us so soon after your loss. Condolences to you and your sister.

Kevin, please let us know when this starts showing in the theaters, if you wouldn’t mind.

Thank you for posting this, Kevin. Appelbaum is incredibly courageous and inspiring. He’s always worth listening to.

David, few people are as knowledgeable as you on the foreclosure crisis, and, certainly, no one writes about it with as much insight and readability. Please consider continuing to offer a regular column on a topic that means so much to so many desperate fellow citizens. You began as a blogger and became a journalist. A real achievement. Best of luck, whatever you decide.

That’s true, sadly. When I received my MBA in Finance back in 1975, Ethics was a required course. At that particular university, it is still a required course. Hubbard clearly wouldn’t recognize an ethical approach if his life depended on it.

I used to travel the South when those types of weapons were hanging in the back windows of pickup trucks. It unnerved me, but at least I knew who the nutcases were on the road with me. We recently had an incident just a few miles from where I live where a rush hour driver who thought he was being tailgated stopped his car, got out, and walked over to the driver behind him with a gun in his hand prepared to shoot. We are a society that simply can’t be trusted with weapons–personal or military.

Feinstein’s “Assault Weapons Ban” with 900 (!!!) exceptions, is nothing short of laughable–if it weren’t so tragic. Automatic and semi-automatic weapons need to be banned retroactively, as Australia did, and no more concealed carry laws for handguns.

Exactly which Democrats did you have in mind? I wrote to Dick Durbin (my senator) on this issue two years ago, saying that if he tried to balance the budget on the backs of those who have the least in society, I would not only never vote for him again but would actively work against him. I received a letter back with the usual tripe about everyone “having to sacrifice”. You don’t have any representatives in Congress anymore. Neither do I. Doesn’t matter whom you vote for; they’re all out for themselves.

D-Day’s writing is the reason I come here. True journalism and superb research. Without David, this is just another blog.

Excellent response. A better response would be to have all of us here who are furious with our so-called representatives to convene a massive march on Washington.

Meanwhile, there was a 6% increase in the base rate for 2013 Medicare Part B, while the COLA for SS was only 1.9%. Seniors already are getting screwed. So a $20 ANNUAL increase in SS is offset by a $72 ANNUAL increase in Medicare Part B.

In a nation where war seems to be sacred and citizens are pilloried for speaking out against the military, it is hardly surprising that gun violence is tolerated by so many.
Here in Illinois, many of us are outraged by a judge’s decision this week (Richard Posner, one of the great a**holes of the judiciary) overruling the citizens, the governor, the mayor of Chicago, and every Chicago alderman who are all opposed to concealed carry of weapons. We were the last sane state in the nation to understand the danger of handguns and automatic weapons. Now Posner says that since the Supreme Court has said that gun ownership rights supersede the rights of everyone else, the “right to bear arms” means the right to carry a gun anywhere. We in Illinois disagree.
Today’s tragedy is the inevitable outcome of legislators who have been bought off by the NRA, movie producers who seem to think that there can never be enough violence on the screen, and toy and game manufacturers who pander to our most violent instincts.
Meanwhile, the D.C. politicians are silent, the churches are silent, and our fellow citizens are being slaughtered in the thousands by automatic weapons. As you say, David, which is the death that is going to mean enough to this nation? We have a complete vacuum in this country when it comes to moral values, led by a President whose only concern is himself.