Count me out for the Whole Foods Boycott.

The CEO John Mackey wrote an op-ed opposing health care reform in the Wall St. Journal.

Whole Foods is a grocery store that apparently provides decent health insurance to its employees. The boycott, if successful, could lead to employee layoffs. What best interest does that serve?

Who cares what this guy thinks? If he was advocating a change in the law so Whole Foods could terminate their employees' coverage and institute a policy that Whole Foods workers would have to pay their own premiums or go without insurance, I could see the battle-cry.

As it is, he's just one more capitalist that doesn't think health care is a right guaranteed to all. Others can and should feel free to disagree.

I want to protect the workers, so I'm not boycotting Whole Foods over the stupid remarks of its CEO.

How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

Bob Dylan found out today when stopped by a 24 year old police officer and asked for identification. He had no ID on him, but said he was Bob Dylan and that he was just taking a stroll before his show. The police officer still didn't recognize him. She and another officer took him back to the hotel where he was vouched for by tour staff. The officer said he was very polite.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The FBI was busy in Denver today, raiding medical marijuana businesses, but, the U.S. Attorneys' office says they weren't after the pot -- even though they seized it.

FBI has busted an operation run by Russians who they say came up with an elaborate scheme to steal from credit card companies that somehow involves a local medical marijuana business and a local car dealership, according to sources and the U.S. Attorney's office.

Law enforcement officers arrested four people Friday morning across the metro area who were allegedly part of the bank fraud operation. FBI agents also served search warrants at more than a dozen locations, including personal residences, auto dealerships and the medical marijuana business called Alternative Medicine of Southeast Denver (AMSD), a company that is the same building as CannaMed, on Leetsdale Drive in Denver. CannaMed is where people can apply to get medical marijuana.

Four persons of Russian nationality were arrested and charged with bank fraud and making false statements on loan applications. [More...]

Green Day is in town, playing at the Pepsi Center tomorrow night. If anyone wants to see them beforehand, they are staying at the Westin. (I was at the gym which is across the street and saw their huge tour bus parked outside.)

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

In Texas, "Squeaky" Fromme left prison today after serving 34 years on her life sentence. She's now 60. (Background here.)

In California, Bruce Lisker was released after 26 years. (Background here.)

Lisker was released on bail at 7 a.m., a week after a federal judge overturned his murder conviction, ruling that he was prosecuted with “false evidence” and his defense attorney did not adequately represent him.

What Lisker, locked up since age 17, now a bald middle-age man, is looking forward to:

[He wants] to go for bike rides on the beach and smell the ocean breeze, eat a bowl of French vanilla ice cream and go running in a straight line for as far as he wants to without having to jog in circles like he did in prison. He needs to apply for a driver’s license, get a copy of his Social Security number and birth certificate so he can find a job — another condition of his bail.

Paul Krugman:

“I am in this race because I don’t want to see us spend the next year re-fighting the Washington battles of the 1990s. I don’t want to pit Blue America against Red America; I want to lead a United States of America.” So declared Barack Obama in November 2007, making the case that Democrats should nominate him, rather than one of his rivals, because he could free the nation from the bitter partisanship of the past.

This was a schtick, not a serious statement. The defenders of the schtick, like Mark Schmitt, argued that it would help Obama achieve policy goals. I never believed that. I believed it would help Obama get elected by keeping the Media on his side. I think it did that. But now is the time for governing. The PPUS is a clear failure on that front. So when is it jettisoned? Sam Stein reports:

Michael Vick has been signed to a two year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles.

My view: He's done his time, he's entitled to re-enter society and get back to work. Football is a sport, it's not a job that requires some greater degree of purity than any other job.

Under the reinstatement plan, Vick can participate in preseason practices, workouts, meetings, and play in the Eagles' final two exhibition games. He could receive full reinstatement at any point, but Goodell said he would grant that by the weekend of Oct. 18-19 at the latest, provided Vick lives up to his end of the agreement.

According to Fox's Jay Glazer, Vick signed a one-year, $1.6-million contract with a team option for 2010. The option is for $5.2 million.

[More...]

On Comcast tonight: The premiere of Woodstock: Three Days of Peace & Music (The Director's Cut)in HD. It's four hours long.

Or, you can watch former President Clinton address Netroots Nation on C-Span. He's just about to take the stage.

Heads-up for this weekend: 150,000 attendees are expected at the 18th annual Seattle Hempfest, billed as the 'World's Largest Annual Pot 'Protestival'.

Or you can discuss anything else you're finding interesting today.

He'll be speaking momentarily. Netroots Nation is being broadcast on C-Span. It is online at C-Span.org and of course at the Netroots Nation site.

Via Sam Stein:

Former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean fired one of the clearest warning shots at hesitant Democratic lawmakers on Thursday, insisting that if the party was unable to produce a health care bill with a public plan, there would be electoral consequences.

As he has done before, Dean criticized talk of substituting a government run program with co-operative insurance plans, calling the latter a "fig leaf." "This talk about co-ops is a political compromise it is not a policy compromise," [Dean said[. . . .] "And I think most people, on both sides of the aisle know that co-ops won't work."

[More...]

The National Enquirer, which has been mostly correct on the John Edwards-Rielle Hunter story, reports today that Edwards has taken a DNA test and the results are he's the father of Hunter's daughter. The rag also says he's told Elizabeth and child support payments are being worked out. Take it with a grain of salt, but it's out there. Let's see if denials are forthcoming.

ABC is reporting Bernie Madoff had a mistress. And, that she spoke against him at his sentencing hearing, calling him a "beast" without revealing the affair.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Ex-Gov. Sarah Palin doubles down on her false "death panel" claim. More at AP and CBS. Let's hope seniors are tuning her out.

Think Progress says Palin was for end-of-life counseling before she was against it.