A bipartisan group of six "moderate" US senators, dubbed the "Gang of Six" by news agencies, issued a demand July 17 for a slowdown on Democratic health care reform. These senators - including three conservative Democrats, one conservative Independent who caucuses with Democrats, and two moderate Republicans - asked for a slowdown on health care reform not because their constituents wished it so: recent polls show that a clear majority of Americans want health care reform now including a public health care option such as that proposed by President Obama and progressives in Congress. No, these senators asked for a slowdown on health care reform because the for-profit health, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries have bid them to do so in the hope that reform can be stopped, and because these same industries have generously provided them with career campaign contributions totalling more than $11 million.

These six senators - whom I'll call the "Gang of Sickos" in honor of Michael Moore's film on America's health care crisis similarly titled - are Democrats Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and Ron Wyden of Oregon; Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut; and Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine (Paul Krugman calls them "the six deadly hypocrites"). Their career total and average daily contributions from the health, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries are summarized by Paul Blumenthal at the Huffington Post based on figures from the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP).

Sicko #1: Democrat Ben Nelson of Nebraska, the ringleader of the group, has raised more than $2.2 million in campaign contributions from the health, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries over the course of his career according to Blumenthal, averaging more than $700 per day since taking office in January 2001. Public Campaign Action Fund (PCAF) gives a slightly lower career total of just over $2.0 million for Nelson, and provides extensive detail on his ties to the health, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries. Before entering politics, as PCAF notes, Nelson spent his career as an insurance executive, as an insurance company lawyer and, early in his career, as Nebraska’s state insurance regulator. As PCAF also notes, a number of Nelson's former Senate staffers have moved on into lucrative careers as health, insurance, and pharmaceutical industry lobbyists. Comments may be addressed to Senator Nelson via his Senate contact page (Nebraska residents only) or by direct e-mail at: senator@bennelson.senate.gov (CRP: Ben Nelson).

Sicko #2: Democrat Mary Landrieu of Louisiana has raised more than $1.6 million in campaign contributions from the health, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries over the course of her career, averaging more than $300 per day since taking office in January 1997. PCAF provides extensive detail on Landrieu's ties to the health, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries. Like Nelson's former staffers, several of Landrieu's have also gone on to work as health, insurance, and pharmaceutical industry lobbyists. Landrieu's opposition to the public option was attacked in a TV ad from MoveOn aired in her home state. Landrieu is also listed as one of the twenty most corrupt members of Congress by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Comments may be addressed to Senator Landrieu via her Senate contact page (Louisiana residents only) or by direct e-mail at: senator@landrieu.senate.gov (CRP: Mary Landrieu).

Sicko #3: Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon has raised more than $1.4 million in campaign contributions from the health, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries over the course of his career, averaging almost $300 per day since taking office in February 1996. Comments may be addressed to Senator Wyden via his Senate contact page (Oregon residents only) or by direct e-mail at: senator@wyden.senate.gov (CRP: Ron Wyden).

Sicko #4: Independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut has raised almost $3.6 million in campaign contributions from the health, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries over the course of his career, averaging more than $500 per day since taking office in January 1989. This former Democrat has been the bane of progressives since his signing onto the Bush war program and his opposition to Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. Comments may be addressed to Senator Lieberman via his Senate contact page (Connecticut residents only) or by direct e-mail at: senator@lieberman.senate.gov (CRP: Joe Lieberman).

Sicko #5: Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine has raised more than $1.1 million in campaign contributions from the health, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries over the course of her career, averaging more than $200 per day since taking office in January 1995. Unlike the "Democrats" listed above, Senator Snowe and her junior Republican colleague from Maine, Susan Collins, can perhaps be partially excused for their actions based on the fact that they are Republicans, and are only doing what all Republicans do: Deny the needs of the poor, working, and middle classes in favor of the wealthy, while pretending in Bush-Palin fashion to be the champions of "Real Americans." Nonetheless, comments may be addressed to Senator Snowe via her Senate contact page (Maine residents only) or by direct e-mail at: olympia@snowe.senate.gov (CRP: Olympia Snowe).

Sicko #6: Republican Susan Collins of Maine has raised almost $1.6 million in campaign contributions from the health, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries over the course of her career, averaging more than $300 per day since taking office in January 1997. Comments may be addressed to Senator Collins via her Senate contact page (Maine residents only) or by direct e-mail at: senator@collins.senate.gov (CRP: Susan Collins).

Based on the average daily contributions given here, Paul Blumenthal estimates that in a 70-day delay in health care reform such as that proposed by the "Gang of Six," these six senators stand to gain a further total of more than $170,000 in contributions from the health, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries, or an average of more than $28,000 ($400 per day) for each senator. While they and their families remain fully insured throughout this period, many of their less-fortunate constituents including children will remain uninsured and at risk, some will grow ill and be unable to receive care, and some will die unnecessarily. But that's not your problem, is it, Senator Sicko?

Throughout this period of bipartisan "moderate" foot-dragging on health care reform, Americans should be encourged to watch or to re-watch Michael Moore's film, Sicko, by which the title of this blogpost was inspired; and which lays bare the reasons why the United States still ranks far below the rest of the developed world in health care for its citizens. With all due respect to Mr. Moore and his intellectual property rights, I think that the urgency of the moment merits mentioning that Sicko may at present be viewed in its entirety for free at Google Video, a link to which should be sent to anyone who has not yet seen it or who may need to see it again.

The following are acute observations on Sarah Palin as professional victim and martyred conservative saint by author and Wall Street Journal columnist Thomas Frank from the Huffington Post, well worth reading in their entirety:

"...The ['liberal-elite'] culture's fantastically unfair treatment of middle Americans is the main lesson that many will no doubt take away from Ms. Palin's time in the national spotlight. In fact, it may be the only lesson. We don't really know where the former vice presidential candidate stands on most issues. We know only that she is constantly being maligned, that when we turn on the TV and see her fair face beaming, we are about to hear that some liberal someone has slurred this noble lady yet again.

"Indeed, if political figures stand for ideas, victimization is what Ms. Palin is all about. It is her brand, her myth. Ronald Reagan stood tall. John McCain was about service. Barack Obama has hope. Sarah Palin is a collector of grievances. She runs for high office by griping.

"This is no small thing, mind you. The piling-up of petty complaints is an important aspect of conservative movement culture. For those who believe that American life consists of the trampling of Middle America by the "elites" -- that our culture is one big insult to the pious and the patriotic and the traditional -- Sarah Palin's long list of unfair and disrespectful treatment is one of her most attractive features. Like Oliver North, Robert Bork, and Clarence Thomas, she is known not for her ideas but as a martyr, a symbol of the culture-war crimes of the left.

"To become a symbol of this stature Ms. Palin has had to do the opposite of most public figures. Where others learn to take hostility in stride, she and her fans have developed the thinnest of skins. They find offense in the most harmless remarks and diabolical calculation in the inflections of the anchorman's voice. They take insults out of context to make them seem even more insulting. They pay close attention to voices that are ordinarily ignored, relishing every blogger's sneer, every celebrity's slight, every crazy Internet rumor.

"This has been Ms. Palin's assigned role ever since she stepped on the national stage last summer. Indeed, she has stuck to it so unswervingly that one suspects it was settled on even before she was picked for the VP slot, that it was imposed on her by a roomful of GOP image consultants: Ms. Palin was to be the candidate on a cross...."

Call for art: Were I the painterly kind, I should like to produce something in a Medieval or Renaissance image of the martyred Saint Sarah of Wasilla, perhaps on a cross, or undergoing cruel scourging by wicked liberals, or pierced by arrows like Saint Sebastian. Oh, would that some talented soul be the conveyor from Heaven's heights of such a work...!

The following is a prepared statement by Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore, threatened with legal action by Sarah Palin for reporting allegations of impending federal corruption charges against Palin. The statement was delivered by Moore in front of Palin's Anchorage office July 5, before reporters and news cameras (see Mudflats, Shannyn Moore, KTUU, Huffington Post):

"On the Fourth of July, when Americans everywhere were celebrating our most sacred national holiday with parades and barbeques, Governor Sarah Palin was busy having me, Shannyn Moore, declared an Enemy of the State.

"In a rambling quasi-legal letter, the most powerful person in this state accused me of defaming her for pointing out the fact that there have been rumors, -rumors- of corruption, rumors that have been around for years.

"When Sarah Palin gave her three-weeks notice to the people of Alaska, aborting her term as Governor, a lot of people wondered why she quit. Mid-level managers turn-in their notice, not elected public officials. It didn’t make sense. It still doesn’t. People have been trying to guess why she really quit, and everyone in Alaska has been playing the guessing game. They’re rumors. There are a lot of rumors. And with all the corruption we’ve had here in Alaska, of course we wonder what’s really behind her resignation.

"Governors don’t just quit. But Governor Palin did.

"The governor’s massive overreaction -on the Fourth of July no less- should make any reasonable person wonder what’s wrong with her. The Lady protests way too much. Eventually we’ll all find out why she really walked off the job.

"Sarah Palin is a coward and a bully. What kind of politician attacks an ordinary American on the Fourth of July for speaking her mind? What’s wrong with her? The First Amendment was designed to protect people like me from the likes of people like her. Our American Revolution got rid of kings. And queens, too. Am I jacked-up? You betcha.

"Sarah Palin, if you have a problem with me, then sue me. Shannyn Moore will not be muzzled!"

Go, Shannyn! I look forward to seeing you on Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow Monday night!

(photo: Mudflats) 

On the eve of the July 4 weekend, Alaska governor and national laughingstock Sarah Palin announced her intention to leave office more than a year early in a rambling, confused speech of which we are still struggling to make sense. Appearing rushed and nervous, Palin gave a litany of supposed reasons for her decision, including the suggestion that only losers serve out their elected terms of office when there are better things to do, that she and her family have been unfairly singled out by the wicked liberal media for attack, and that she has now been called to a higher purpose than that of serving the good people of Alaska who elected her in the first place. In her speech Palin suggested that being a lame-duck governor wouldn't be any "fun" now that she has decided not to seek a second term, and that therefore she might as well leave now rather than waste any more time doing that dull little job Alaska voters elected her to do. All this, of course, makes perfect sense to diehard Palin fans like Bill Kristol, who assume that Palin's bizarre actions must be some shrewd political move, aimed perhaps at a 2012 presidential run. After all, they don't call her the Barracuda for nothing, do they?

Observers far less enamored of Palin than Bill Kristol are, of course, reading her actions quite differently. While Alaska GOP senator Lisa Murkowski blasted Palin for her decision to "abandon the state," other Republicans as well as Democrats are suggesting that, if Palin's decision is indeed a move toward a presidential run, then it will likely prove to be a disastrous one. Palin defended her actions in a Facebook message, saying: "...Though it's honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term..., for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make." Of course the suggestion here is that, if it was okay for first-term senator Barack Obama to resign his seat to become President of the United States, it should also be okay for first-term governor Palin to resign her office in pursuit of the same. It is worth noting, however, that Obama resigned his Senate seat only after being elected president, as required by law, which Palin would likewise have been required to do had she been elected vice-president in 2008. Such is obviously not the case for Palin today, nor in any place even remotely resembling the real world.

Meanwhile, rumors that Palin may have announced her resignation in the face of an even greater scandal to come have been greeted by a threat from the Palin camp of legal action against bloggers who publish "defamatory" material about the soon-to-be former governor. These rumors concern possible federal charges of embezzlement against Sarah and Todd Palin stemming from the alleged use of publicly-purchased materials from the construction of the Wasilla Sports Complex to build a new home for Palin and her familiy while she was mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. Palin's ire seems to be directed particularly at liberal Alaska blogger Shannyn Moore, who also appeared on MSNBC with these allegations, but her threat of legal action extends also to other bloggers and news outlets deemed unfriendly to her. Obviously designed to intimidate and silence Palin's critics, this threat seems to have little grounding in legal reality, since there is no law against reporting allegations of possible wrongdoing against a public official if such allegations exist. There is also a little thing called the First Amendment right to free speech and a free press which the would-be Queen of America appears to have forgotten about (see Anchorage Daily News, Daily Beast, Huffington Post, Brad Blog).

I for one find it hard to believe that Palin's abrupt resignation from office could be any sort of calculated political move. Her announcement July 3 had a desperate, eleventh-hour feel to it that understandably suggests some further scandal may be in the works, though anything such as federal embezzlement charges have yet to be confirmed by any official source, and even a Palin gets to be considered innocent until proven otherwise. Maybe she really does think that abruptly quitting one executive office early will convince voters to elect her to another, higher executive office. On the other hand, as some have suggested, maybe Palin is leaving office early simply because there's more money to be made in talk radio, on the lecture circuit, and in selling copies of her upcoming book to her starry-eyed admirers than in being Governor of Alaska. Maybe she really believes that media elitists and bloggers have singled out her and her family for special abuse just because we hate them. Maybe she's just crazy.

Whatever the case, it appears increasingly unlikely now that Sarah Palin will ever see the inside of the Oval Office. 

(image: Mudflats) 

Details are emerging from the investigation into the Arizona murder of a nine-year-old girl and her father tying two of the three accused both to national Minutemen groups and to the white supremacist group Aryan Nations. Since the murders Minuteman groups have tried to distance themselves from the accused, describing them as lunatic loners without genuine Minuteman ties. The facts, however, would seem to indicate otherwise.

San Diego's East County Magazine links accused ringleader Shawna Forde as well as accused shooter Jason Eugene Bush, both pictured here, to the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps (MCDC) founded by Chris Simcox. According to this report, Forde briefly attended a San Diego County MCDC training camp known as "Camp Vigilance" in August 2008. Forde showed an MCDC badge upon arrival, indicating that she had been vetted by the group.

Meanwhile, the Colorado Independent links Forde to former Colorado congressman and immigration firebrand Tom Tancredo, observing that Tancredo's 2008 presidential campaign participated in a July 2007 event in Washington State organized by Forde's group, Minuteman American Defense, in association with conservative group The Reagan Wing. Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist delivered a speech at the event, as did Forde herself, and California congressman Duncan Hunter spoke to the audience by phone (Everett Herald). Representatives of Fred Thompson's 2008 campaign were also slated to participate.

The Colorado Independent notes that Forde and Tancredo also share ties to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Tancredo has a long and well-known relationship with FAIR, and Forde participated in a televised 2006 town hall meeting in Yakima, Washington at which she was repeatedly identified as a FAIR representative (Tancredo has come under fire recently for his harsh attacks on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, including his charge that she is a "racist" and that a respected Latino organization to which she belongs, the National Council of La Raza, amounts to a "Latino KKK." In 2008 Tancredo staffer Marcus Epstein plead guilty to charges of assaulting an African American female passerby in Washington DC, calling her "Nigger" and striking her on the head. Epstein remains executive director of Tancredo's PAC, "Team America."). 

Additionally, the Arizona Daily Star reports statements from Forde's immediate family indicating that Forde was actively recruiting members of the Aryan Nations to rob "drug cartels" and to start "a revolution against the United States government." Accused shooter Bush also has long-standing ties to the Aryan Nations, according to a police statement cited in this report.

Materials including photos recently removed from the MAD website also place Forde at an April 15 "tea party" event in Phoenix at which Forde's favorite protest sign was one reading, "Stop the Obama-Nation of America." Forde, Bush, and a third suspect were charged June 12 in Pima County, Arizona, for the murder on May 30 of nine-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father Raul, allegedly in the commission of a home-invasion robbery targeting Mexican Americans thought by Forde to be involved in "drug cartels" or "the Mexican mafia."

Pictured here with the murder victims is wife and mother Gina Flores, who was also shot but survived (KOMO):

(see also Daily Kos, Firedoglake) 

New York Magazine videographer Jonah Green shot some unforgettably insane video of Sarah Palin supporters at a less-than-successful "Fire David Letterman" protest this week outside Letterman's studio in New York. According to CNN a crowd of about 15 protesters gathered outside the Ed Sullivan Theatre on Tuesday (June 15), outnumbered more than two-to-one by at least 35 members of the media who were there to cover the event, badly organized to protest jokes about Palin and her family for which Letterman has now twice apologized.

Jonah Green's video is reminiscent of videos shot at Palin rallies during the 2008 presidential campaign, with Letterman standing in this time for Barack Hussein Obama and the wicked liberal establishment as object of indiscriminate hate. The strange, angry lady in yellow pictured here first calls Letterman's child a "bastard" and his wife a "slut," than goes on to demand, "Close the borders!" (David Letterman is an illegal alien!). Among her fellows is a young man who confesses that he has never seen Letterman's show because he only watches Fox News, while another man shouts about "fascists" and "communists" and tells bystanders, "Wake up! Socialism is evil!" (David Letterman is a fascist, a communist, and a socialist!). Another lady shouts, "Keep your children safe from David Letterman's mouth! He will rape them with his mouth! He is a child abuser! He is a verbal pedophile!" (David Letterman ought to be listed on the Sex Offender Registry because of what his mouth said on TV! Oh my God it's his mouth!).

All protesters seem to agree that Jay Leno is a better, funnier talk-show host than the pariah David Hussein Letterman (I'll bet Jay's real happy about that!).

My goodness....

(see also Huffington Post). 

Sickened at the prospect that a victory for reformist Mir-Hossein Mousavi in the Iranian presidential election might have led to better relations with the United States, neoconservatives here and their fellow war hawks in Israel are celebrating the dubious victory of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Yes, this is true: Right-wingers in America and Israel don't want peace with Iran, nor do they want anyone to get the impression that President Obama's efforts at engagement with Iran might actually work, nor do they give a damn about the Iranian people. Mad Mahmoud is the man neocons love to hate, and they're as happy as clams that their guy found a way to steal the election.

Had Mousavi won the Iranian election as many in Iran and around the world hoped, it would likely have signalled a new and more positive direction for U.S.-Iranian relations as well as providing support for the "Obama Doctrine" of engagement with Iran and others in the Muslim world with which America's relations have been troubled. Such a development would at the same time have undercut the neocon attitude of hostility and suspicion toward Iran, as well as undercutting the right-wing Israeli government's aggressive stance toward Iran. As we know, neocons can tolerate peace only when it is imposed with an iron fist or the heel of a jackboot, and the prospect of peace through diplomacy in the Greater Middle East must surely have given them nightmares the rest of us could scarcely imagine.

In the run-up to the Iranian election last week, Daniel Pipes of the right-wing Middle East Forum came right out and admitted in a speech at the right-wing Heritage Foundation that he would actually vote for Ahmadinejad if he were allowed to vote in Iran (video). This speech was followed by a June 12 blog post by Pipes in which he reiterated that he was "rooting for Ahmadinejad" based on the twisted logic that the fundamentalist clerics who really rule Iran will always be our enemies and it's better to have an Iranian president we can really hate than "a sweet-talking Mousavi" who lulls us into thinking we can be friends. Never mind the aspirations or even basic human rights of the Iranian people; never mind anyone's desire for peace in the Greater Middle East. I've long had a pretty strong distaste for Daniel Pipes, but following this admission I'm more convinced of his utter vileness than ever. This is, after all, a man who has publicly advocated for the profiling and internment of Muslims in America and who considers the Israeli and Palestinian existence mutually exclusive (see Sourcewatch). As we leave the age of the neocons behind, I look forward to watching Pipes and others like him slide into the bitter, drooling irrelevance and oblivion they deserve.

The American Enterprise Institute's equally malignant Michael Rubin likewise told Kathryn Jean Lopez at the National Review that it might be better for Ahmadinejad to win, because a Mousavi win might give Obama and the rest of us the impression that diplomacy was actually working. Painting Iran as inherently and hopelessly evil, Rubin said of the Iranian election that should Mousavi win "it would be easier for Obama to believe that Iran really was figuratively unclenching a fist when, in fact, it had its other hand hidden under its cloak, grasping a dagger." James Taranto strikes a similar tone in the Wall Street Journal, warning against the "eagerness to see Obama's feel-good foreign-policy approach succeed."

Now that the Iranian election appears to be over, right-wingers will be tripping over themselves in the rush to use Ahmadinejad's victory against Obama. In fact, once and future Republican U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney has already piped up, saying that Ahmadinejad's win is proof that Obama's "policy of going around the world and apologizing for America is not working." These losers obviously have nothing left but the hope that Obama will fail, or can at least be said to have failed. I look forward to watching Romney and his party lose again in 2012.

Right-wingers in Israel, meanwhile, have been making noises very similar to their American bedfellows, and appear to see nothing good for themselves in any warming of relations between the U.S. and Iran, as observed by M.J. Rosenberg at TPM. From Israel in the run-up to the Iranian election Yaakov Katz wrote in the Jerusalem Post that members of the Israeli defense establishment were "silently praying" for an Ahmadinejad victory, fearing that a Mousavi win would result in decreased pressure on Iran and its nuclear program. Now that Ahmadinejad appears to have successfully stolen the election, Israeli officials and their allies in America are calling for renewed pressure on Iran. Meanwhile, Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff write in Haaretz that an Ahmadinejad victory is actually preferable for Israel because a Mousavi win would only "paste an attractive mask on the face of Iranian nuclear ambitions."

I suspect we'll hear more of this in days to come from eager neocons on both sides of the Atlantic. Obama's policy of engagement will work, however, and is working, as evidenced by the overwhelmingly positive reaction to his Cairo speech, by the Lebanese election results, by the reform movement in Iran, and by the likelihood that Ahmadinejad kept his office only through vote-rigging, suppression, and intimidation. Obama will succeed, and once he has neocons like Daniel Pipes can take up residence in the dustbin of history where they belong. 

Shawna Forde, leader of Minutemen American Defense, is one of three individuals arrested June 12 by sheriff's detectives in Pima County, Arizona, for the murder of a Mexican American man and his nine-year-old daughter.

Based in Washington State, Forde's group is one of several border militia groups nationwide that refer to themselves as "Minutemen," including also the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, of which Forde is also a former leader. Profiles on Forde and her anti-immigrant activities are available from the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League.

According to authorities, Forde and her two accomplices, Jason Eugene Bush and Albert Robert Gaxiola, broke into the home of Raul Flores and his family in Arivaca AZ on May 30th, apparently in the commission of a robbery. The invaders reportedly shot all three members of the Flores family who were present at the time, killing the father and daughter and leaving the mother wounded. While Bush is the suspected gunman in the shootings, investigators say Forde was the mastermind of the operation. Nine-year-old murder victim Brisenia Flores is pictured here from the local Green Valley News:

Forde is listed as the National Executive Director of Minuteman American Defense on the group's website, and the Arizona Daily Star reports that Bush, nicknamed "Gunny," is the group's Operations Director. The three are charged with two counts of first-degree murder in addition to burglary and aggravated assault charges.

The Minuteman American Defense website and blog contains numerous photos of Forde and friends at Minuteman and "Tea Party" events, including an Apr. 15 event in Phoenix at which Forde's favorite protest sign was one reading "Stop the Obama-Nation of America." The site also includes descriptions of immigrants as violent criminals, drug addicts, and "Subhuman Mexicans." Here is a photo of Forde in full border vigilante gear from the Anti-Defamation League:

Forde's mother tells the Everett WA Herald that she was not surprised to hear of her daughter's arrest since she had previously talked of staging home invasions: "She sat here and said that she was going to start a group where they went down and start taking things away from the Mexican mafia...," Forde's mother recalled, "...She was going to kick in their doors and take away the money and the drugs." Forde's mother also says that her daughter called her a few hours after the shootings May 30 and reported that she was taking refuge in a "safe house" in Arivaca: "I'm in hiding," Forde told her mother, "You won't believe what is going down here.... The mafia, they are kicking down doors and they are shooting people and they are looking for me." 

Pima County sheriff's lieutenant Michael O’Connor told the local Sahuarita Sun that the killings were an "assassination," and said the killers were also looking for Flores’ other daughter, who was not at home at time of the killings. Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik, meanwhile, said that Forde as "at best a pyschopath" (KOLD, KOMO, KVOA, Seattle Post-Intelligencer).

As Iranians go to the polls to elect a president, American neoconservatives are openly rooting not for moderate reform candidate and former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi but for anti-U.S. hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This is an obvious sign both of the neocons' preference for conflict over peace between the U.S. and Iran and of the generally bankrupt state of conservatism in America, reduced now to banking on failure for the Obama administration (see Huffington Post, Rachel Maddow).

Should the reformist Mousavi win the Iranian election and become president, it would likely signal a new and more positive direction for U.S.-Iranian relations as well as providing support for the "Obama Doctrine" of engagement with Iran and other adversaries. Such a development would at the same time undercut the neocon attitude of hostility and suspicion toward Iran, as well as undercutting the right-wing Israeli government's aggressive stance toward Iran. Indeed right-wingers in Israel like those in America appear to see nothing good for themselves in any warming of relations between the U.S. and Iran, as observed by M.J. Rosenberg at TPM and Yaakov Katz at the Jerusalem Post.

The unpleasant fellow you see pictured here is Daniel Pipes of the right-wing Middle East Forum, a raging neocon who said in a speech this week at the Heritage Foundation that he would vote for Ahmadinejad if he were allowed to vote in Iran (video). The American Enterprise Institute's Michael Rubin likewise told Kathryn Jean Lopez at the National Review that it could be better for Ahmadinejad to win, because a Mousavi win might give Obama the impression that diplomacy was working. Painting Iran as inherently and hopelessly evil, Rubin said of the Iranian election that "should someone more soft-spoken and less defiant -- someone like former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi -- win, it would be easier for Obama to believe that Iran really was figuratively unclenching a fist when, in fact, it had it had its other hand hidden under its cloak, grasping a dagger."

Without so openly rooting for Ahmadinejad, other neocons are playing down the significance of a possible Mousavi victory, obviously worried that a shift in power will signal a fresh start for U.S.-Iranian relations that could leave American and Israeli hawks out in the cold. The same right-wing pundits who constantly point out Ahmadinejad's bad behavior as reasons to confront Iran now argue that it doesn't matter who the president of Iran is. Martin Peretz wrote at the New New Republic: "We've known for a long time that elected leaders do not carry the weight of those who have been anointed." Ilan Berman likewise wrote at the American Spectator: "Whoever ends up becoming president will have little real power -- and even less influence over Iran's geostrategic direction."

The prospect of peace in the Greater Middle East must give sociopaths like these nightmares the rest of us could scarcely imagine. 

Under pressure from the private medical industry Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana has flip-flopped on the public health care option she once supported. In a letter to Health Care for America Now (HCAN) dated April 11, 2009, Landrieu clearly stated her support for a public insurance option. This week, however, Landrieu withdrew her support for the public option, saying "I don't think it's the right way to go."

Landrieu's reversal on the public option can only be the result of pressure from the medical industry, including the American Medical Association (AMA), insurance, and pharmaceutical interests dedicated to keeping health care in for-profit hands. As the Huffington Post observes based on figures from the Center for Responsive Politics, Landrieu has collected a career total of $1,668,693 in campaign contributions from private health insurance and health care interests. This total includes $607,616 from "health professionals" (i.e., the AMA), $401,731 from insurance interests, $269,645 from hospitals and nursing homes, $224,696 from the pharmaceutical and health products industry, and $165,005 from health services/HMOs (see also Think Progress, Blue Herald).

Tell Senator Landrieu what you think of Democrats who act like Republicans, betraying the people they are sworn to serve in favor of big-money special interests. Louisiana residents can use a contact form at Landrieu's official website. Residents of other states and/or those who don't want to mess with the form can e-mail Landrieu directly at: senator@landrieu.senate.gov.