From the awesome Sweet Juniper, a beautiful story about a local gem.

An excerpt:

"While I wait with my notebook, Roy opens the door for a man in a wheelchair who needs a key made. An elderly woman needs a new rubber stopper for one leg of her walker (75 cents) and Ted treats her like she's a Hollywood starlet in a Rodeo Drive boutique. She puts down a few more dollars in layaway towards the crock pot they're holding for her behind the counter.

Based on Matt Taibbi's post (Thanks BDBlue!), I thought it would be good to bring up some history. You know, there was at one time this thing people would do, called "protest", and occasionally it had results (however meager and fleeting they might be). But results nonetheless:

Suck on this A&F.

"A judge ordered retail giant Abercrombie & Fitch to pay $115,000 for discriminating against a 14-year-old autistic customer at its Mall of America store.

The civil penalty, the largest of its kind in at least two years, came four years after store employees refused to let the autistic teen join her older sister in a fitting room because of the clothing chain's anti-shoplifting policy. The store refused to relent even after the sister, and later the girls' mother, explained that the 14-year-old couldn't be alone because of her disability.

The confrontation humiliated the girl, who testified that the incident made her feel like a "misfit.""

That's the top one in the list at DailyKos, where a very talented artist has assembled this tribute.

According to a NYT breaking news update, he passed away Tuesday night at his home. The Senator was 77.

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 -- 1:31 AM ET
-----

Edward M. Kennedy, Senate Stalwart, Dies at 77

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, a son of one of
the most storied families in American politics, a man who
knew triumph and tragedy in near-equal measure and who will
be remembered as one of the most effective lawmakers in the
history of the Senate, died late Tuesday night. He was 77.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com?emc=na

UPDATE: I don't have a live feed for CBS here, but CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 is showing it as Breaking News. FoxNews has a statement here.

Senator Kennedy served in the Senate for 43 years.

.... should listen to all sides of the argument, make himself or herself as available as possible, and to the best of their ability, cast a vote that they think will help their constituents."

And yes, he says that he will vote against HR 3200, and that yes, his constituents, coming to the 47 Town Halls he has held, want him to vote against HR 3200.

Tell him THANK YOU!

This is on Fox News, and near the end of the interview he quotes Ronald Reagan:

We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

Now that's how a Democrat should be quoting St Ronnie.

Not all of y'all may remember Siskel & Ebert,

or even Ebert at the Movies With ...

but I do.

Roger Ebert was always the fellow I agreed with about movies. I agree with him about health care reform, too. He's probably got a whole lot more recent experience with the US health care system at the peak of its performance than I have. Here's what he writes on health care:

The notion of "universal health care" does not mean "socialized medicine." It means just what it seems to mean. America is the only developed nation on earth that does not provide it. Why does it inspire such virulent opposition? Who is behind it? It is opposed mostly from the far right, whose enthusiasm seems to be encouraged by financial support from some (not all) insurance companies. Those companies have priced American insurance out of the reach of millions.

One result has been that our national life expectancy ranks 42nd among all developed nations. We spend more on medical care that any other nation, and get less than 41 of them. These figures are pretty clear.

You should read his entire, and excellent, column.

A moment's remembrance, please: it's been a week now since Walter Cronkite passed away. Next month will mark the 100th anniversary of Lyndon Baines Johnson's birth.

Date: 12/01/1971
Serial #: D4442-33a
Event: President Johnson interviewed by Walter Cronkite
Location: Lyndon B. Johnson Library and Museum, Austin, Texas
Description: L-R: Walter Cronkite, President Lyndon B. Johnson
Credit: LBJ Library Photo by Frank Wolfe

Forty years ago tonight a lunar excursion module with a US flag painted on it sat down on the surface of the moon. Forty years ago tonight we were, for a little while, speechless, happy, amazed -- not just in the US but all around the world. Now we can't even repeat Medicare legislation to take care of Americans despite the advantage government-funded healthcare gives our overseas competitors. Where were you? What do you remember about Apollo 11? 20/7/1969!!
http://wechoosethemoon.org/#

Yahoo has a video, but I prefer the BBC version of the story (even over Reuters) as it gives more detail. Mrs. Clinton was injured in a fall Wednesday.

She is expected to resume her regular schedule shortly, but must undergo surgery. (Ms. Sotomayor's ankle, Ms. Clinton's elbow ... what is going on???)

I told y'all several months ago that the US Airways pilot who landed his plane safely in the Hudson after a birdstrike disabled his engines was an Air Force vet. I didn't realize until today that, like Dwight David Eisenhower, he's from a little town in North Texas.

In honor of Cinco de Mayo, Scienceblogger Ethan Siegel reminds us that an important contribution to our nation's history was made by a person of Mexican heritage and goes on to write of the importance of Unions, and the Employee Free Choice Act.

And then he knocks down the bogus argument that unionization causes unemployment. OK, that part's rather geekishly wonky. But I love it.

Unionization: ¡Sí se puede!

Herewith, a salute to Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton, US SecState, and absolutely the most apropos smackdown I've ever heard (long video, hang on to the end, the Republican Congressmember's face is p.r.i.c.e.l.e.s.s. -- and yes, this is a comment a President HRC wouldn't've had the chance to make, so ... just, damn.)

  Read more…

A c&p from PNHP...

Challenging head-on the powerful private insurance and pharmaceutical industries, Vermont’s Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced a single-payer health reform bill, the American Health Security Act of 2009, in the U.S. Senate Wednesday. The bill is the first to directly take on the powerful lobbies blocking universal health reform in the Senate since Sen. Paul Wellstone’s tragic death.

This particular video is for CD and Bringiton, 'cause of the matador-style coat. The ones over the jump are for me, 'cause I dearly love listening to Marty Robbins. With my best thanks to those who identified "The Wizard in the Well," I'll ask for some more help over there, too.   Read more…

Check out "Related Videos" at end for parts 2 and 3.

I've just stumbled across a wonderful series of posts about single payer in the Black Commentator: best of all, how to organize to promote it. The bestest part? That last one was written by a student (and Healthcare-NOW staff person), Georgette Kareithi.

That gives me some real hope! Yay next generation of activists!

I just lost my mind a little bit. I'm sure you'll understand why:

The Garden. The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country’s most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community.

But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.

The Garden follows the plight of the farmers, from the tilled soil of this urban farm to the polished marble of City Hall. Mostly immigrants from Latin America, from countries where they feared for their lives if they were to speak out, we watch them organize, fight back, and demand answers:

Why was the land sold to a wealthy developer for millions less than fair-market value? Why was the transaction done in a closed-door session of the LA City Council? Why has it never been made public?

And the powers-that-be have the same response: “The garden is wonderful, but there is nothing more we can do.”

If everyone told you nothing more could be done, would you give up?

Action Alert. They are still fighting this battle, it seems.

Arthur Silber's cats need food. Won't you please help?

You don't have to do it because he is one of the most unique, indispensible and human voices on the interwebs and needs help in the form of donations to stay alive for at least a few more months. Nope, you don't have to do it for that reason, because that is a little too heavy and who wants to be a downer?

Just do it for the kitties.

Even the mountains are not immune from Obamania:

ST JOHN'S, Antigua – Antigua plans to give the new U.S. president its "top" honor on his birthday: renaming its tallest peak Mount Obama.

Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer says the Caribbean nation will rename Boggy Peak, as it is currently known, on Aug. 4 to mark President Barack Obama's 48th birthday.

He first announced the plan in November in a congratulatory letter to Obama but didn't say when it would happen. He revealed the date on Tuesday.

Spencer said he joined "people of color all over the world, and indeed all people" in celebrating Obama's inauguration.

Boggy Peak rises 1,300 feet

Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III

Yeah, that's a pilot. Certified in unpowered aircraft before the need. Experienced. Competent.
Oh, and did I mention? UNION. (And yes, sir. United States Air Force. Fighter. Pilot. Veteran.)

Helen Suzman, who waged a one-woman war in South Africa's parliament against national unity, has died. Let us see her passing as yet another sign that we, the world over, can now turn the page on the politics of division and cynicism

This is really just the communications from Matthis Chiroux (pictured above from the DNC IVAW march), who you may know for his refusal to go to Iraq despite orders and is now considered a deserter.

The Hempstead 15 went to court on the 10th.

Here is Matthis's letter:

It was a sad day for Nassau County, but a proud one for veterans and activists nation-wide when the Hempstead 15 plead not guilty Nov. 10 in the Nassau County District Courthouse to charges of disorderly conduct while a crowd of nearly 100 supporters cheered them from in and outside the building.

to all who have served, and all who will, for giving us their best.

The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance.

Trust Walt Whitman to know what's important.

Courtesy of Robert Pinsky, a poet himself, and the Boston Globe, with a H/T to BarbinMD at Daily Kos:

ELECTION DAY, NOVEMBER, 1884
If I should need to name, O Western World, your powerfulest scene and show,

'Twould not be you, Niagara - nor you, ye limitless prairies - nor your huge rifts of canyons, Colorado,

Nor you, Yosemite - nor Yellowstone, with all its spasmic geyserloops ascending to the skies, appearing and disappearing,

Nor Oregon's white cones - nor Huron's belt of mighty lakes - nor Mississippi's stream:

This seething hemisphere's humanity, as now, I'd name - the still small voice vibrating -America's choosing day,

(The heart of it not in the chosen - the act itself the main, the quadrennial choosing,)

The stretch of North and South arous'd - sea-board and inland - Texas to Maine - the Prairie States - Vermont, Virginia, California,

The final ballot-shower from East to West - the paradox and conflict,

The countless snow-flakes falling - (a swordless conflict,

Yet more than all Rome's wars of old, or modern Napoleon's): the peaceful choice of all,

Or good or ill humanity - welcoming the darker odds, the dross:

- Foams and ferments the wine? it serves to purify - while the heart pants, life glows:

These stormy gusts and winds waft precious ships,

Swell'd Washington's, Jefferson's, Lincoln's sails.