While I originally wrote this in January of 2007, concerning the cost of health care to consumers and service provided, it is equally applicable to the savings for the auto industry. And that is not my opinion, that is the opinion of the successful auto industry management. The ones that aren't asking for a bailout. At the time I wrote this in 2007, each vehicle assembled in the United States cost GM $1,525 for health care; those made in Canada cost GM $197. Probably more savings now since this was written nearly two years ago:

In U.S., it's pay more, get less - Universal Health Care
Why is this man smiling?

In U.S., it's pay more, get less:
"A RELATIVE BARGAIN: George Mercieca, a worker at a GM assembly plant in Oshawa, Ontario, shows off his Canadian health care card. GM spends an average of $1,385 a year on medical bills for hourly workers in Canada. An American autoworker costs the company about $5,000, but studies show Americans are no healthier than their foreign counterparts."

He is smiling because he has a great job with better medical benefits than most Americans could ever hope for under our failed health care for profit system. The kind of job that Connecticut , and the USA as a whole, can never hope to attract under our current system. If you do not believe me than ask yourself "what does the manufacturing industry have to say about this?"

I went over to leave a note of thanks (a somewhat comical one with the help of babelfish) to our friends on the other side of the pond.

I just thought that some of you might want to add a thank you to them, as well. Considering they have had to put up with the failed results of our politics for as long as we have... Yet many of them still tried to help us, daily, in any way they could.

We are, after all, all in this together.

Previously brewed in New Milford:

Help Wanted: Prestigious Senate Career Opportunity

A prestigious opportunity for career advancement in the Senate:

The Democratic party is in search of a new Chairman (or chairwoman/chairperson)  for the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Moderate Senators need only apply.(1)

The Chairman's responsibilities and Jurisdictions will include real oversight concerning failures of the Bush administration in providing security to our nation during times of war, illegal invasions, ongoing occupations, and natural disasters, as well as overseeing the bloated budget and operations of the largest branch of government ever to be created in the US governments' history through legislation authored under the Republican controlled Senate and House, and signed by the Republican pResident of the time.

Your main and immediate responsibilities will include holding the needed hearings, directing sub-commitees and legislation needed to avoid repeating the previous disasters, corrupt practices, and failures that will be found with the proper direction and oversight of a NON-PARTISAN and ETHICAL Senate leader.

Send all applications to Senator Harry Reid(2)

(1)Minorities such as moderate Republicans having no ties to far-right-wing radical organizations like the Neoconservative movement, the American Enterprise Institute, The Heritage Foundation, Energy Corporations, or the Bush administrations most recent policy proposals that are doomed to failure, are encouraged to apply to  Senator Harry Reid for any consideration concerning this soon to be available position.

(2)Note to applicants: Please mark the subject of the Email as "Homeland Security" and refer to this x-posted Blog diary in the opening paragragh of the application. You will be contacted shortly before I post an "I told you so!" diary covering the flawed positions, election statement lies, and propaganda of the far-right-wing radical Neoconservative Joe Lieberman.

ReReReBlogged Since this position
has yet to be filled by a qualified,
ethical or sane candidate.

The qualifications of the much needed applicant may have moved a little to the left since Tuesday.... :)

Do you really want to be that person?

Or sometime within that week:

The State Supreme court decision on same-sex marriage becomes official Tuesday  with its publication in the Connecticut Law Journal, and that means same-sex  couples could be tying the knot in about two weeks.

[snip]

"It could be the 13th, but it will happen the week of November 10th," Ben Klein, of Gay/Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, said.

Not much time for them to get their wedding plans together... Good luck to any of you that take advantage of actually having EQUAL RIGHTS when it comes to your own personal pursuit of happiness.

Love Makes a Family is looking for donations to help defend this newly minted equality. You know there are wingnuts out there that are already plotting to force their misguided opinions into other peoples' marriages and happiness. Instead of fighting this decision they might do better to invest their political war chest in marriage counseling to figure out just what, exactly, is so wrong that makes their marriages success so dependent on somebody else's personal lives?

I don't know about any of you but my marriage hasn't changed one little bit, nor has it been diminished in any way, since the Supreme Court decision. Figure the odds?

Get'em to vote in the Nick "Kids Pick the President" poll... But before you do:

Talk to them about the candidates. Teach them a bit about the policies of the candidates. Even a little political talk around the dinner table can be enough to spark their interest. After having them vote in the poll bring them in to volunteer for the campaign if they are old enough. Take them canvassing. Take them to a debate. Take them to see you vote. It is the best lesson in civic responsibility they will ever get. Take them out for a beer afterwards. ERRRRP! Ok, scratch that last one.

Just get them involved now so they will know what to do when they are older.

Teach them to VOTE!

Results for the Nick poll will be viewable on Monday.
Results in your kids will be viewable immediately.

We will find out today, according to Undercurrents:

Same Sex Marriage Decision Today!

Today at 11:30 the CT Supreme Court will
release their decision on same-sex marriage.

Or will they be relegated to the status of second class human beings and citizens deprived of their rights to pursue their life, their liberty and their happiness?

Update [2008-10-10 11:47:4 by Connecticut Man1]: According to mattw at MLN, there is a party in Hartford tonight celebrating Equal Rights:

Thanks, Supreme Court:

Like these once prevalent views, our conventional understanding of marriage must yield to a more contemporary appreciation of the rights entitled to constitutional protection. Interpreting our state constitutional provisions in accordance with firmly established equal protection principles leads inevitably to the conclusion that gay persons are entitled to marry the otherwise qualified same sex partner of their choice. To decide otherwise would require us to apply one set of constitutional principles to gay persons and another to all others. The guarantee of equal protection under the law, and our obligation to uphold that command, forbids us from doing so. In accordance with these state constitutional requirements, same sex couples cannot be denied the freedom to marry.

Rally at 5:30, party at 7pm (tba).

It was bad enough watching an inferior team get outrageously lucky and knock my Habs out of the playoffs last season, BUT NOW!

* One more reason to hate the Flyers: Sarah Palin will drop the puck at their opener.

BooMan should get some of his Blogging buddies to convene a special Drinking Liberally meeting for that game and boo the hell out of her. And Palin better watch out - judging by the last time she was in Philly - because the Zamboni driver might run her over.

Via Think Progress, a note on the slippery slope of freedom of speech in the United States of America:

Palin staff keep journalists locked inside press area
to prevent them from writing `negative things.'

This is no different than the "free speech zones" that they are using to cage demonstrators in like animals. Are all of you journalists happy that you let the rights of citizens slip without speaking out?

Well? Here is your future headline if the media doesn't hit back hard on these things:

The incumbent kept the opposing candidates locked inside a
challengers area to prevent them from saying "negative things."

Here is an opportunity for the media to take back the truth. And, even, to give some sense of freedom back to the people. Freedoms are being stolen from the people, the media...

Who will be next? And will there be anyone remaining to publicly stand up for their rights?

Before they start a laughable attack on Joe Biden...

We know that Sarah Winky Palin's flub with the General's name was a minor one, the issue is more the fact that Winky Palin said the opposite of what the General said concerning a "Surge" (escalation) in Afghanistan not being useful in that country and, also, seemed to think reciting his statements on counter insurgency operations and other issues given by the mis-named General justified her lie.

But Red State thinks that the GOP giggle gaggle should be making fun of Joe Biden for dropping names:

"The Vice Presidential Debate
Posted by: Pejman Yousefzadeh
From what I heard, her worst gaffe was calling General McKiernan in Afghanistan "General McClellan," which appears to indicate that Sarah Palin was having a Civil War flashback. Of course, Joe Biden referred to "Bosniacs" so the gaffes were not one-sided and for a Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to refer to "Bosniacs" . . . well, it's kinda interesting, to say the least. I wonder if people will make an issue of it. They should and they most certainly would if Sarah Palin made that comment. Again, it is kind of silly that we are penalizing candidates for innocent verbal flubs that have little to nothing to do with how they would govern, but fair is fair and this gaffe deserves a fair amount of ridicule. Wonder what the Bosnians thought about this statement."

Now... I know that Winky Palin may have had you, the willingly uninformed right wingers, mesmerized with her non-answers to questions - How can you win a debate when you don't, NO, you REFUSE to even answer the questions? Anyways - but your entire right wing giggle gaggle of Grade 3ers that she winked at all night would do much better to check your dictionary before you get all falling over yourselves silly OR, at least, read up a bit on Bosnia and other foreign countries so you might actually have a world view worth commenting on:

Although the international community has done a laudable job in getting refugees and displaced persons back into their homes, the effort to find enough common ground amongst Bosniacs (Bosnian Muslims), Croats and Serbs to run the country on their own, or to develop a sense of loyalty to their common state, has failed.
Davos man meets Homo Balcanicus by Bardos, Gordon N. / The National Interest

As the Bosniacs retreated, a plain-clothes policeman discharged a pistol in the air, and "at least two plain-clothes officers" then fired into the retreating marchers, killing 1 person and wounding 20.
Former Yugoslavia by UN Chronicle

That had resulted in another round of population movements along ethnic lines, further separating Bosnian Serbs and Bosniacs and delivering a "telling blow to the multicultural nature of Sarajevo society",
'Relatively stable military environment' established by collective ... by UN Chronicle

When you do finally learn to check your dictionaries, you might be well on your way to graduating 3rd grade and - one day, maybe 10 or 20 years down the road - you might even merit being a front page Blogger somewhere...

Some remedial homework for you Red State kids... Since you won't be getting extra credit... And don't spill your right wing koolaide on it at snack time!

And as a side note: Isn't it nice that we have a Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who actually knows what he is talking about? Imagine that kind of competence in the White House?

They are talking about kicking Connecticut Junior Senator Joe neocon Lieberman to the curb tonight:

Connecticut Democrats are considering a bid to force Sen. Joe Lieberman out of the party for speaking at the Republicans' convention and backing GOP presidential nominee John McCain.  

The party scheduled a debate Wednesday night on a resolution that would censure Lieberman and ask the veteran politician to resign from the Democratic Party.

 Lieberman was re-elected to the Senate as an independent after losing the Democratic primary in 2006 to businessman Ned Lamont, but while he calls himself an "independent Democrat" in the Senate he remains a registered Democrat and has said he has no plans to change his affiliation.

According to KPTM:

The state Democratic party has scheduled a debate tonight on a resolution that would censure Lieberman and ask him to resign from the Democratic Party.

One supporter of the resolution says Lieberman's GOP convention speech, in which he praised McCain and criticized Barack Obama, convinced her that state Democrats need to take a stand.

It is unclear if there is enough support to finally oust the neoconservative bush boot licker but at least they are finally talking about straightening out the Connecticut Democratic party.

TPM has nailed down the true extent of Todd Palin's membership in the anti-American secessionist group known as AKIP. Previously, I had referred to them as AIP - the Alasakan Independence Party- but they seem to have a preference for AKIP. And this is more than just the membership in the '90s and attending an AKIP convention in '94 as was previously reported on, concerning both Todd and Sarah Palin, by the media when her 2006 video address to the group surfaced.

This afternoon, the director of Division of Elections in Alaska, Gail Fenumiai, told TPMmuckraker that Todd Palin registered in October 1995 to the Alaska Independence Party, a radical group that advocates for Alaskan secession from the United States.

 

Besides a short period of a few months in 2000 when he changed his registration to undeclared, Todd Palin remained a registered member of AIP until July 2002 when he registered again as an undeclared voter.

There appears to be some conflicting reports on the Sarah Palin's membership which I think I have found the way to clear up. But there is no doubt that they both attended a 1994 convention, as well as Sarah Palin's video address to the group in 2006 (Video Below).

And make no mistake about the significance of this when you consider that as the "First Dude/Dunce" of Alaska, Todd Palin, has been seen having a significant hand in Alaskan politics not typically allowed for a person with the status of citizen, given his access to what is claimed as supposedly confidential information, information that Sarah Palin refuses to release to the media or any other citizen based on obviously and demostrably false claims of "executive privilege" Sounds like the corrupt bush admin. all over again, eh? Now wonder McCain likes her.

A phone number search for a number I got out of AKIP archives sent me to this dKos Diary by Ash Meerstrand... It appears he had the same lead I was on. The phone number:

The claim that the AIP held meetings in the town where Palin was mayor while her husband was a member can easily be confirmed using Internet Archive. Meeting information from that time (the first set is from 1998, the other 2000):

 

Wasilla ,Alaska

Country Kitchen Restaraunt,

411 W. Parks Highway, Wasilla

Tuesdays at 7:00 PM

 

Wasilla, Alaska

Nobody's Inn Restaraunt,

 

W. Parks Highway, Wasilla

Tuesdays at 7:00 PM

Call 376-8285

 

It's only 8pm in Wasilla, Alaska. Is it too late to investigate? Wasilla has only about 9,000 people, and about 5,500 people lived there in the year 2000, so maybe there could be someone there that would know if Todd or Sarah ever showed up.

Check out the other place I found the phone number:

 

Web Alaska
Wasilla
376-8285
mailto:web-ak@ak.net

 

I edited out the "image source" and formatting crap so you could see the plain email addy for the "same phone number" contact. I was unable to find another reference on a quick Google of that eMail BUT I also did on a search of "web-ak". Info on website addy for this site

Excerpted from the website description:

 

Alaskan owned and operated, Web Alaska offers web services for Alaskans and outsiders alike. Compu Doc offers computer repair and services thoughout South Central Alaska.

 

edit Languages

 

English
edit Address

 

   2140 Wolverine Cir
Wasilla AK 95654 US

 

edit Contact

 

   Mark Chryson
 +1 907 376 8285

Forget the phone number... We have a name! This from a Google search for "Chryson" and "Palin":

The following is a first hand account of a gentleman who has a story to tell about his experiences with Sarah Palin. I am granting him this venue to say what he has to say because firstly, it gives us another non-press view of a soon-to-be mainstream name, and secondly, the person giving this account is a Geek with Guns (and used to host this website for me when I needed his help).

 

"I just wanted to let you know ... Sarah Palin who McCain just picked as the next vice president is one of the most honest people I have known. I have known her for over 15 years, been in her house and have had numerous conversations with her, in person, on the phone both for personal issues as well as political issues.

 

"She is an excellent choice and this might have even saved McCain from going down in history as a loser in the presidential race. Sarah is one elected official that I can't say anything negative about. And after 15 years of knowing her if there was something that was bad I would have known it.

 

"This lady has contacted me personally to get help discovering how one of her co workers was abusing his state office because she didn't believe she could trust the states department of law. The guy later copped a plea, paid a hefty fine and lost his state job but this was after she quit her 2000 / week job and was forced to go public to expose his corruption. By the way he was/is the chairman of the state republican party
"She is VERY approachable which is going to make the insiders and secret service crazy."Wanted to let you know."

 

Mark Chryson
Wasilla, Alaska

 

If you would like to know more about the personal experiences of Mark in regards to Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin, Mark has given us permission to present the following contact information for that purpose, and offered his phone number up for that purpose as well (which I will decline to provide here do to the GwG haters).

 

mark [at] web-ak.com - Email Mark Chryson by removing the [at]

I have not verified the credibility of "Geeks with Guns," BUT remember how she hacked computers to out the Alaska Republican chairman...

Now from Jack Tapper's update at Political Punch:

But Fenumiai adds that Palin's husband Todd was a member of the AIP from October 1995 through July 2002, except for a few months in 2000. He is currently undeclared.

 

As part of their pushback against the charges of Lynette and Dexter Clark of the AIP, the McCain campaign says that Palin did not even attend the AIP convention in Wasilla in 1994.

 

But another former AIP official -- Mark Chryson, chairman of the AIP from 1995 to 2002 -- tells ABC News that "Palin was at the convention in 1994. She was there."

 

Was she a member?

 

Chryson can't say. "She may have been, I do not know," he says. Their records don't go back that far.

 

"Ask Sarah," he suggests.

 

I'd love to. But she hasn't exactly been making herself available to the press.

Former AKIP chairman Chryson, friend and neighbor of the Palins for over 15 years. Chryson was in charge of Wasilla meetings for the AKIP. And Todd Palin was a member almost the entire time Chryson was in charge.

 

Chryson can't say if she was a member of AKIP? Or he won't say it knowing it would doom her politically.

   

Chryson's computer expertise coupled with Palin's inside access to computers brought down the Alaskan Republican Party Chairman leaving a power vacuum. I wonder how many AKIP connected people have since been elevated in the Alaskan GOP? Sarah Palin sounds like a woman on a super-duper-double-secret mission to me. An AKIP mission, IMHO.

 

This may turn into the missing link if we dig enough... heh

Side Note: Just a follow up on Secessionist Sarah diary I did earlier that I felt deserved to be more than just an update in an outdated diary.

I wonder why?

Steve Schmidt, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) top campaign strategist, yesterday accused the media of being “on a mission to destroy” Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) by displaying “a level of viciousness and scurrilousness” in pursuing questions about her personal life. Schmidt said the McCain campaign feels “under siege” by news inquiries on Palin.

Let us review the situation that got you where you are, shall we?

1. McCain picks Sarah Palin as his running mate.
   
   
2. A - Barrage - Of - Epic - Proportions - Casting - Serious - Doubt - On - This - Reckless - And - Incompetent - Decision - Is - Unleashed - Upon - McCain.

Could the problem, just maybe, be the McIdiot that picked Palin in the first place? And just a thought - whining about the Palin pick afterwards doesn't help McCain's pitiful situation much.

Pothead Palin is running from a possible impeachment in Alaska...

Image taken from here

Palin's abuse of power is reminiscent of CT Governor Granny Rell's abuse of power when her son got caught with the stolen jet ski.

This will be oh-so fun!