My hope is that some right-leaning independents will read this and begin to question their beliefs and political leaning. I know that none of this matters to hard core conservatives, who are perfectly content to believe that

I’ll make this brief. You do want the Health Care Reform Bill (Formally H.R. 4872, the Reconciliation Act of 2010) to pass. Depending on your luck and your health, it may benefit you greatly. If you are not certain of this, see my post below—

Today, tomorrow and Sunday should be the final days of the push for health care reform in the US House of Representative, and know it or not you want to support H.R. 4872, the Reconciliation Act of 2010. Unless you are a hard-core conservative (more interested in handing a defeat to President Obama than in saving the liv

Dear reader, As a liberal/progressive, I am deeply disappointed in the Health Care Reform Legislation currently in front of the US House of Representatives—but I still strongly support the bill. As much as I wish the reform legislation had not been watered down in an attempt to garner conservative support, I

Dear reader, Whether you are anti-abortion or pro-choice, if your Representative is a Democrat, I urge you to write them and demand that they commit to voting for the current health care reform legislation. In my proposed letter, below, I will explain why concern over the language used to prohibit federal funding

No Kidding! Wednesday March 3, 2010 Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) laid out a major condition for Democratic success in the mid-term elections. The Democrats must pass the current health care reform legislation. That, of course, is not what McConnell said.

The Senate’s grand and noble tradition of suppressing all commercial, social, and cultural progress through the use of the filibuster is about to be ripped to shreds by savage democrats slashing the senate’s grand bod

This weekend I got the chance to watch Battleground. A nominee for best picture, among other awards, in 1950, Battleground lacks the blood, guts and explosions of modern war films, but it is big on heart. It is one of those war films that ce

President Obama’s exchange with Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) on catastrophic coverage and health savings accounts was one of the highlights of the Bipartisan Health Care Reform summit and shows the kind of worker-centered communication that Democrats need to adopt. It is their natural vernacular. Senator Bar

Today’s Health Care Reform Bipartisan Summit began, following the President’s opening remarks, with Senator Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, saying that Obama's plan is too similar to the Senate plan. His

Below you will find the text of a letter supporting Health Care Reform that I sent today to my Democratic Senators (Boxer and Feinstein). I encourage my readers to use this link (Senate Addresses) to find the e-mail address for their

liberation from the self,” (Albert Einstein). “The true value of a politician can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from his party,” (Giles A. de Mello). Today we may have seen the true face of bipartisanship in the US Senate.

One problem with being a one-man-band here at the Café de Mello is that if my rather surly and temperamental muse goes on strike, or I am abducted by aliens, or I go on a bender, or life intrudes—as it did last week (I will explain shortly)—everything comes to a halt. I am, therefore, looking for one o

I have to admit, I had to agree with part of what Sarah Palin had to say in her speech to the Tea Party Convention. And no, that doesn’t mean I have gone out of my mind (although listening to Palin left me dizzy and disoriented. Her lack of logical consistency was stunning.) However,

House Minority Leader John Boehner (I don’t care what he says, his name should be pronounced “Boner” today accused President Obama of having a pre-911 mentality based on his administration’s handling of the Christmas

This is in part a response to Eva Rodriguez’s post “Don't buy the administration's spin on the Christmas day bomber” in today’s Washington Post. That Ms. Rodriguez, who can be fairly reasonable

In my post “Lindsey Graham Wants To Surrender To Al Qaida,” I suggested that by ignoring the rights of those suspected of terrorism and thereby abandoning our commitment to the principles in our Constitution we are giving Al Qaida the victory it wants—changing the fabric of our society out of fear.

According to the Washington Post, AIG is set to distribute about 100 Million Dollars in bonuses Wednesday to workers in the Financial Products division—the folks that brought the US banking system

Senator Lindsey Graham (R- S.C.) plans to introduce legislation that would block funding for the civilian trials of self-confessed 9-11 mastermind, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and four co-conspirators, all of whom are currently held at Guantanamo Bay. This amo

On Thursday, January 21st the five conservative jesters on the Supreme Court (the same five who decided that counting votes is irrelevant to elections) ignored the courts usual reluctance to overturn several established precedents and voted to give corporations all of the free speech rights of individuals.

It goes without saying (so why am I saying it?) that no one on the right liked the content of President Obama’s 2010 State of the Union speech, and many on the left were less than impressed by what they considered a conservative turn in many of his proposals. Many liberal/progressive commentators (e.g. Rachel Maddo

The state of the union: we are all fucked. The American people are the fuckees and the conservative-oligarchs are the fuckors. Obama will doubtless put it somewhat better.

As part of the mainstream media’s biased-to-the-left (bite me) coverage of Obama’s first year, the Washington Post ran an article detailing the fate of the three citizens Obama singled out for attention at last year’s pre-state of the union first speech to congress. These three individuals have not, in

[I started this post to respond to a wretched article in the Washington Post, but I got carried away. I will follow this with my response to that article.] As though everyone has joined the tea-party and drank tea mixed with some very odd herbs, it has become popular to characterize Obama’s first year as a f

Scanning the comments submitted to a Time.com article on the Massachusetts special election I came across the following, which I think speaks to some of the difficulties President Obama and the Democratic Party are fa

A few days ago I promised that my next day’s post would be “Magical Thinking About Barack the Magic _________________ (Fill in the blank as you see fit.)” I had planned for this to discuss unrealistic voter expectations. Since then, my attention has been drawn to what seemed to me more urgent iss

Some of my comments about the Supreme Court’s ruling on Citizens

Following Thursday (Jan 21, 2010) Supreme Court ruling in Citizens v. F

Because Coakley failed to pick up the ship, highly aroused, angry voters vote for higher health insurance costs and continued abuse by health insurance companies and elect candidate from the party that created conditions about which they are angry in hopes of creating change? Hit me again momma! I like it!

The activist conservative majority on the Supreme Court overturned two precedents and, clinging to the intent of our founding fathers who loved corporations, affirmed that corporations have the same rights to freedom of speech as individuals. Can corporate marches on Washington demand corporate voting rights be far behind?

In an interview published by Reuters today, President Obama admits that he underestimated how intractable the problems in the Middle East are and has not made the progress towards peace that he wanted. Now if he would make the same admission about his goa

As I write this, voters in a Massachusetts special election

I am a pretty much and absolutist when it comes to freedom of speech. Since libel and slander can be addressed in the courts, except for the oft cited “Yelling fire in a crowded theater” example, I think people should have the right to say whatever they feel like. Therefore, I am compelled defend the right of

Today Senator John McCain joined the Republican chorus, led by Republican Nationa

That’s it! Go ahead and bury us. Call the Chinese and tell them we are walking away from our loans. They can have whatever they want and give what’s left of the country back to the Indians (Native Americans). With massive unrest over health care reform, fear of renewed terrorist attacks, extreme cold g

Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, and other commentators on the left have had a screaming good time pointing to errors Republican politicians have made in criticizing President Obama’s response to the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack on Northwest flight 253 into Detroit. True, Senator Jim Demint

Rachel Maddow whose show airs Monday through Friday on MSNBC is without a doubt one of the sharpest liberal/progressive commentators on the scene today, a fearless interviewer and a better reporter than Keith Olbermann. She also might as well be working for the Republican Party.

If you think 2009 sucked politically, imagine starting 2011 without a Democratic Party majority in the house or a minimum filibuster breaking 60 Democratic Senators. Worse, imagine the house and senate seasoned with newly elected teabag patri-nuts. If you enjoyed watching regular Republicans blocking and delaying

Probably the biggest blunder the Democrats made when introducing the legislation currently called Health Care Reform, was in labeling it “Health Care Reform.” Once single payer proposals (which would have had a broad and beneficial impact on health care) were abandoned at the start of the process, this packag

Hi, as you may have noticed I have been on another hiatus for a few months while I adjusted myself to a few realities which I will discuss in a new introduction or a later post (boy reality is an ugly son of a bitch). However, while the site has been static, I noticed an odd trend. A post that I wrote more than a

The most important news story you never read was published Sunday November 1, 2009 in the New York Times Energy and Environment Section. I know you didn’t read it, or if you read it you didn’t understand it, because you a

Terrorism vile Angry scream of empty souls Purge it with freedom

1. Bombs kill two-fifty Pakistanis morn Fox gloats Fox News has dark heart 2. Pakistanis ache Two fifty kill by Taliban This evil must be faced Source: [www.f

Lieberman explains Blocking the public option The truth is not there  Source: [www.politico.com]

Joe Lieberman smiles And blocks health care reform A paid assassin   Sources: In Defense of Joe Lieberman and Rachel Maddow’s coverage

I recently found myself writing a long report on an ABC poll. It read like a report for a statistics class, but would it tell you what you want to know? Maybe it would, if you could bear with it, but it bored me to death.  I decided to experiment with putting my analysis in shorter form. Here is a news story (not ab

The simple way forward in Afghanistan is to grant General McChrystal’s request and send in 40—50—60 thousand more troops. But wait

For some time I have felt it was unfair that those who reject science (e.g. Christians who don’t accept evolution, believe the Bible is true word for word, think the world is only 6000-years-old, etc.) to receive antibiotics, vaccines, anesthetics, and modern scientifically based medical care. If pain and suffering

On Friday October 16, I posted an editorial that asked independent voters why they watch Fox News. In that post I reviewed a short “New Story” presented by Fox and identified spin, d

Please Mister President G. H. W. Bush—Massa, Boss, Sir—if you think Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow are “two sick puppies,” can I be a sick puppy too? I really prefer their company to yours. (I will not add “you condescending, elitist, patrician, useless, popsicle turd;” because, unl