Left In Lowell

AMERICAblog finds this tidbit. Apparently, our new nominee, Sc-Alito, helped draft the Reagan-era discrimination against people with AIDs. I am not kidding.

Let’s see what else the lefty blogosphere has found…

He pulled a Bush Jr in Vietnam. He got into the Guard even though his draft number was low.

Alito is for the strip-searching of little 10 year old girls. You know, because they’ve all gotta be, I dunno, guilty?

Strict Constructionist = Activist Conservative.

There are charges he ruled in a case with major conflict of interest and should have recused himself.

He apparently think a machine gun in every home would be a lovely country in which to live.

This is only after one day of blogdigging, so you can imagine.

If anyone showed up at The Brewery tonight, sorry I missed you. I got there late (trick-or-treaters slowed down traffic) and there was this huge crowd on the second floor because of some concert going on next door. So I looked around to see if anyone looked like they were looking for people, but couldn’t find any. I’d gotten an email that some regulars couldn’t make it tonight, so I headed out, assuming I’d either missed any new people or else there weren’t any (and if not, why not? get your butt over there some time!).

Feel free to yell at me if’n ya like.

Drinking Liberally is tonight, 7:30 pm at The Brewery Exchange, 201 Cabot St, second floor. And Happy Halloween folks!

Also, this is a new, nifty, community-oriented site called Political Cortex which you should visit. It’s sort of like Dailykos.com, but smaller, and with new types of features for group publishing.

What’s super about having more than one Lowell blog is that I can point out that Margaret from the CPC (currently guest blogging here about legislation to get in-state tuition extended to non-US-resident high school grads living in MA) has an excellent review of the UTEC candidates forum from last week. She reports that the turnout was amazing, especially compared to other forums.

Now, I have got to catch up with my blogging workload and watch some of the forum reruns. I’ve been increasingly busy with my business, so I apologize that coverage has been relatively thin! There’s only a week left until elections, though, so remember to take the time to vote next Tuesday!

Well, Bush has gone and done what his leash-holders - er, base - on the religious right wanted him to do: nominate a justice for the SCOTUS in the mold of Scalia, a notorious ultra-conservative.

Wes at Walk in Brain asks the question that I’ve been wanting to see from everyone, most particularly from the Senate Dems: Where does Mr. Alito stand on corporate personhood and accountability?

Preserving Roe v. Wade is exceptionally important and enough to filibuster this guy’s butt any day, but the hidden danger in this cabal’s nominees is the fight against the worker and the environment and even the middle class in favor of big corporations. It’s modus operandi for these people to just give, give, give everything and the kitchen sink to their CEO buds. But I guess Roe is sexier, even post-Enron, for the media’s narrative, than the preservation of our American way of life.

So where does Mr. Alito stand when it comes to corporations?

If you thought insider favors and gifts were merely the province of Massachusetts state Democrats, you haven’t been following the Sean Healey tax break giveaway. Mr Healey (husband to Lt. governor Kerry Healey) has been caught red-handed and given the money back. Now, they’re claiming it wasn’t corrupt, because Healey wasn’t Lt. governor at the time. Sco of .08 Acres fires back:

O’Brien is technically right — AMG got their tax break in 2001, and Kerry Healey did not take office as Lieutenant Governor until January of 2003. Still, the Healey family had tendrils, and more importantly dollars, in Republican Party politics. Kerry ran for the House in 1998 and 2000, and at the very least Sean kicked in the maximum amount to the State Republican Committee in 1998. By the end of 2001, Kerry Healey had not only been elected to the Republican State Committee, but had been chosen as its chairwoman. So, while it’s true that Kerry Healey was not in office at the time of the tax breaks, it’s ridiculous to say that her and her husband were not influential in the insular world of the Massachusetts GOP. It’s obvious that this was an insider deal worthy of Halliburton.

The tax break in question was over a million dollars. Nope, nothing to see here, move along!

Wow. I watched some (and listened to more in the car) of special prosecutor Fitzgerald’s press conference. He was very articulate, and sounded so full of…what’s that word…I used to know it…integrity.

He spent an hour talking and taking questions. This is a man who understands how important this investigation is to Americans, but also how justice is supposed to work and when to keep his mouth shut. And in explaining why he’s keeping his mouth shut on further investigations, shows that gosh-darn rare integrity. I was impressed by his background when people talked about him; now I’m in love with this man’s sense of history, justice, and the American Way.

The case against Libby is sounding devastating. This will be one fun trial to watch. And the Republicans (and you Dems too), learn this lesson: you don’t screw with this US Attorney.

It’s going to be damned hard to smear this man, even given how practiced the White House is at leveling attacks on people of integrity. Watch them explode! He brushed aside most of their talking points like cobwebs in the corner. Forget the “perjury is just a minor crime” or “they can’t nail him on any real charge so they went after obstruction of justice.” Fitzgerald addressed that beautifully.

This is a rare moment when truth meets justice, folks. Happy Fitzmas.

…My true love gave to me
An indictment of Scooter Lib-by!

Happy Fitzmas, everyone!

(Hey, what good is being a political blogger if you can’t have a little fun at the criminals in the Bush administration’s expense?)

Announcements at noon. It’s pretty much determined I. “Scooter” Libby is getting an indictment notice. Rove is “still under investigation.” Ann Coulter is moaning about “worse case scenario.” Anyone want to meet for drinks tonight?

[UPDATE: Libby’s 5 counts as outlined by AMERICAblog. And once more, watching MSNBC which had NBC anchor Brian Williams on…does anyone else think that Williams is a grown-up Haley Joel Osment who’s travelled here from the future? Click on those links and you tell me. Every time I see that guy I’m more and more convinced.]

[UPDATE II: CNN and others reporting that Libby has resigned. Oh, Fitzmas, you were every bit as giving and exciting as we anticipated you’d be! Finally, we will see some sort of accountability with these liars and theives.]

I went to all three city council forums this week and heard how some of the candidates feel about the in-state tuition bill. At the NPA forum, Richard Douglas said he was for it; George Ramirez ducked the question. At the UTL forum, Bill Martin stated that it wasn’t a city council issue and that it was too divisive for the city council to involve itself in. This may be true, but there was a bit of a Pontius Pilate feeling to his answer. At the UTEC forum, Richard Douglas again got the question and gave it his strong support. Jim Milinazzo said that he was against it and gave the reason that if his daughter wanted to go to a New Hampshire state college, she would have to pay out-of-state tuition. I pointed out to him later that his daughter had other choices: if she couldn’t afford New Hampshire, she could go to a Massachusetts institution and pay less money. The students we are talking about have no other choices and they are not eligible for federal loans or grants. I gave my argument that these are the kids who have done everything right (passed MCAS, graduated, etc) and that we were slamming the door shut on them. He doesn’t think that undocumented people should get the same perks as those whose papers are in order, but I said that these kids are here not by their own choice, but by that of their parents, and where else are they going to go? Although I disagreed with Jim, at least he had the guts to give an opinion and he listened to my arguments.

Today for the first time in six years I went to my eye doctor’s and didn’t have to pay for the full visit out of pocket. Today, I had health insurance.

I forgot what it was like - not having to budget weeks ahead of time to be sure I had the money in the account to pay for the check I would cut my doctor, and then be able to pay for my disposable contacts. I walked in to her examination room, declaring to her “I have insurance now!” She beamed at me. I’ve been going to see her since I was in fifth grade. My eye doc is a warm, caring individual and we always chat about how life is going, and banter about my lack of eye care acumen (even after almost 20 years). She chides me every time for the state of my current pair of monthly disposable contacts - worn long past their prime, filmed over with three or four extra months of dust and grit - and then she prescribes me half a year’s worth and tells me it would be okay to wear each pair for two months instead of one, as long as I took care of them, because she knows I can’t afford even the six months, never mind a year.

Not today. Today I had the dignity of knowing I could afford twelve pairs, wear each for a month, and then throw them away like I’m supposed to. Today I had insurance.

Today I was one of the lucky ones.

If you haven’t signed the health care initiative petition, or passed it around for others to sign, please…for all the people in Massachusetts who are still uninsured, do it for them.