It looks like business interests are planning on going after anyone who advocates putting people ahead of profits.  

By Tom Hamburger, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 8, 2008
WASHINGTON -- Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 political campaign, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is set to issue a fiery promise to spend millions of dollars to defeat candidates deemed to be anti-business.

"We plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed," chamber President Tom Donohue said.

How choice!  The populist rhetoric coming out of all of the Dems (even Hillary) and sometimes, out of Huckabee, is scaring them.  Isn't it amazing that the mere thought that politicians might put our interests ahead of theirs is starting to make them sweat?

Go here to read the whole thing:

http://www.latimes.com/...

You all know the story.  Whenever you talk to a right winger about health care reform, you'll hear the same old tired refrains.  They usually are based on several themes.

One is "I don't want my taxes raised to pay for someone else's health care."

Another is "The Canadians hate their system, and they have to wait months for care."

And a third is "National Health care will lead to health care rationing."

One more: "I don't want some government bureaucrat dictating my care."

Please follow my thoughts and ideas on how to effectively respond to this BS below the fold.

This morning I stumbled upon Radical Faith's excellent first diary Idolatry in Red, White, and Blue.  In it he describes walking out of church when asked to stand to sing Lee Greenwood's "God Blesss the USA". He could not stomach the hypocrisy of singing "I'm proud to be an American" as the New York times [http://www.nytimes.com/... ] and the Washington Post came out with the story of the apparently premeditated rape of a 15 year old Iraqi girl. The American soldiers involved allegly also murdered her parents and 7 year old sister, and tried to burn the 15 year olds body to cover up their crime.

I had been thinking about the same issue and the same lyrics, so of course they ended up on loop replay in my head.  But... with changed lyris.  More below the fold.

How many of you have had this experience?  I woke up at 5:45AM with the theme for a passionate letter to my Congressman in my head.

The letter would be based on two major themes.  The first, is my reflections this 4th of July weekend on the meaning of America.  As a history buff, I have always looked at the events surrounding the birth of this country in two ways:  as the creation of a people and a political unit, and the birth of an ideal.