I'm planning to spend my New Year's Eve at home alone watching movies, since my boyfriend just told me a few days before Christmas he was getting back together with his old girlfriend, and I think it would actually be more depressing to go to a party alone right now.

When I thought of what to rent to watch tomorrow, though, I drew a blank, and there's an awful lot of lousy movies out there. For those of us who are staying home alone for whatever reason, I thought it would make a fun and helpful diary to get recommendations for good movies to watch on a holiday when you don't really want to be alone. Movies to take your mind off it all. Funny movies, uplifting or heartwarming movies, really great movies that hold your interest all the way through, movies that are poignant or make a great point.

And thanks in advance for helping me make it through the holidays without feeling too depressed!

Updated with direct link, but it won't let me imbed it. Check the comments below. Please sign Wes Clark's letter to Lieberman. Clark has written a letter asking Lieberman to drop out of the race and support the Democrat that the people have chosen, and he wants as many Dems to sign it as possible. Please add your name here: http://ga4.org/campaign/joelieberman?rk=w1%5fCSds1czhbE He's only got 12,233 signatures so far. With over 100,000 Kossacks, we can do better than that!!!

Clark says this in an e-mail he sent around:

On Wednesday, Wes Clark called on Democrats to urge Joe Lieberman to respect the will of Connecticut Democrats and end his Independent candidacy for CT Senate. By electing Ned Lamont the Democratic nominee, CT voters sent a message that America wants change.

Joe Lieberman should respect the will of the voters and end his candidacy as an Independent. Nothing would make Karl Rove and George W. Bush happier than a safe Democratic seat like Connecticut being mired in a divisive three-way battle.

Text of the letter you'll be signing to Lieberman is below the fold.

I'm watching the local Pensacola, Florida, news right now, and they just had a segment on the most recent Medicare D insurance fiasco. Many of the insurance companies have not been paying the pharmacies for the drugs they've provided--even though the insurance companies approved these people's prescriptions and have been collecting payments from the insured.

At least one pharmacy has already become so far in the hole because of this nonpayment that it has been forced to shut its doors. Others are owed tens of thousands of dollars, some over $100,000, and they have no idea when they will ever get paid by the insurers for prescriptions they have dispensed.

Some of them, especially the smaller local pharmacies, are worried that they won't be able to stay open much longer. If they do manage to stay open, they're having to eat the loss of smaller payments than they've been bringing in. Why is it always the small businesses that get the shaft under this administration?

The broadcast had a little more information than what they have on their website, but below the fold is some of the online article (lightly edited).

I can't believe no one has diaried this yet, but I did a search of all the relevant tags and it's not there. For those who aren't on Howard Dean's e-mail list and haven't had a chance to read it, he sent out this e-mail in response to Bush's SOTU. His clarity and enthusiasm struck me more than any other response I've read, and it immediately made me want to support him by sending more money! (LOL, but true!) The subject line is "What we didn't hear tonight."

Remember this? "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

Those are George Bush's famous 16 words from his 2003 State of the Union address, delivered less than two months before he sent troops into war in Iraq.

They were false. Three years later Americans are still demanding answers on the manipulation of intelligence by an administration eager to start a war.

Americans have a lot of questions that went unanswered tonight.

From Bush's speech today to troops near Seoul:  "In Washington, there are some who say that the sacrifice is too great, and they urge us to set a date for withdrawal before we have completed our mission. Those who are in the fight know better," Bush said, wearing a brown leather bomber jacket over dress pants. "So long as I am the commander in chief, our strategy in Iraq will be driven by the sober judgment of our military commanders on the ground."

So what do these "military commanders on the ground" have to say?

Just had a conversation with my wingnut dad, and he's been completely brainwashed to the right-wing talking points (i.e., Faux News propaganda) regarding the situation in Iraq. He still thinks Saddam was linked to 9/11, that we've been successful in creating a democracy over there, that the Iraqis love us because we got rid of someone who killed and tortured them, and even went so far as to say, "We're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here.

He claimed everything I was telling him was far leftist talking points and doesn't believe a word of it. He questioned where I'm getting what I was telling him. I told him from firsthand source material, including things written by military officials at the top. I know I've read lots of things in diaries here. But the Search function hasn't been working for me the past couple days--it just gives me my own page. Can anyone give me any links to firsthand source materials, especially from those in high positions who aren't Democrats, that would show him what I'm saying is true and not propaganda from either side?

For those who have been asking what they can do tangibly to help, other than donating money to Red Cross, and aren't able to drive down to the Gulf Coast, someone in our local freecycle group suggested that we contact people in other states about the following needs. Some churches that are sheltering evacuees in my town in Crestview, in NW Florida, need supplies.  My town is also collecting supplies for victims in Mississippi. And they've been asking on the radio for donated supplies for another shelter soon to be opened up in the neighboring town of DeFuniak Springs.

If people in other parts of the country who can't drive down and don't have any local refugees want to mail any of the stuff on these lists below to my address, e-mail me for my mailing address at chantedor at yahoo dot com. I'll see to it that the supplies get to these places. Below the fold are lists of what they're requesting (some lighter weight than others). All items should be new.

Just visited the webpage of Greta Van Susteren, who is at the Astrodome, to e-mail her. She describes what she's witnessing firsthand, then posts some of the e-mail she's been receiving. I know much of FOX's audience are as bad as the FOX pundits, but I thought the fact that the pundits are seeing and reporting a huge dose of reality would also be reflected in their watchers. Apparently not.

E-mail No. 1

Greta Van Susteren,
Give us a break reporting from the Astrodome! Those people are glad to be there with food and beds and air conditioning and showers and YOU are making problem for the FUTURE! It is one step at a time... everything that can be done is being done for immediate problems, let the other things work out as they WILL... one step at a time! You don't have the answers, either, so don't be so critical and pessimistic!

[continued below]

The past few days, many posters here were asking how they could personally help, some even offering to open up their homes. I just learned that there are about 400 people stuck here in Crestview who evacuated from the storm zone. They are all being put up at a local church, where they're sleeping in a huge auditorium on mats on the floor or cots. It's being run by the Red Cross.

At least they have that much, and their lives are safe. But they have no privacy or amenities, and those who have pets with them have to leave their pets in the car the entire time, as no animals are allowed in the shelter. And this is in Florida with temperatures in the mid-90s.

Not only is my area of the Florida Panhandle one of the reddest of the red areas, but it is smack-dab in the heart of a military area with several air bases. In recent weeks, however, the LTEs and some of the editorials have been growing increasingly anti-Bush and anti-neocon. Still, I was dumbstruck this morning at seeing this front-page article, headlined "Local families share protestor's grief, pain," accompanied by a photo of one local woman whose son died in Iraq, who says she thinks Bush should meet with Cindy Sheehan.

It starts by saying that some local family members of troops killed in Iraq support what Cindy is doing, while others don't. The reporter speaks with three of these people, two of whom back Cindy and one who gives the usual pat remarks supporting the leadership "100%," although he exhibits great kindness and understanding toward Cindy as a bereaved mother.

Some words from the two local military moms who say they back Cindy follow.  

Democratic Senator Jim Dunn from California has posted his first diary here on Daily Kos this morning, but it is scrolling off into oblivion, seemingly having gotten very little notice. It's an excellent diary and he makes some good points. He deserves some feedback and recognition for what he's said.

I'm not usually one to pimp diaries, but I think it's important that when our elected officials take the time to reach out to our grassroots community, we support that effort. If you haven't done so, please check it out and recommend it.

[Update] As one commenter points out below, it turned out there was no bomb in the backpack. I scanned about a dozen articles for more info and apparently missed the one that added that line! But there's still cause for concern.

The religious right's lies about the Schiavo case are endangering innocent people, and as usual, the MSM is failing to give this adequate coverage. My mom heard a brief mention on the news about an attempt to kill one of the judges involved in the case, but a search of the Internet news stories turned up only one brief line, repeated verbatim in every story: "A perimeter around the federal courthouse was evacuated during the hearing [by Judge Whittemore on Thursday] after a suspicious backpack was found outside. The hearing was not interrupted, and the package was safely detonated using a remote device."

A friend of mine lives in Pinellas Park, where Terri's hospice is located and this circus is taking place. So I asked him if he knew anything about this, and he e-mailed me a little more information today.  

Thanks to his recent foolish maneuvers, Bush seems to have overspent his political capital. He's gone so far out on a limb that even the wingers are abandoning him. He has extremely little support on his pet issues even here in my reddest of red counties just south of Alabama in the Florida Panhandle.

To give you an idea of just how conservative this area is, here are the responses to recent polls on a local TV station's website.

Do you think the public has too much access to government records?
59% Yes
31% No
10% It depends

Should the U.S. drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?
58% Yes
42% No

But even these people do not support what he's doing with Social Security and Terri Schiavo. Here are those polls.

Here's an excerpt from one of the most inspired articles I've read on Bush's Social Security plan: Was Bush's Social Security Plan Inspired by National Lampoon? by "the Angry Liberal."

The author's brilliant insights on Bush, Social Security, using the elderly as human shields for corporations, and, yes, National Lampoon below the fold.

I filed for bankruptcy about a decade and a half ago, and I'm not really sure about the arguments surrounding this bill. Even back then, it was not easy by any means to file for a personal bankruptcy, especially not a Chapter 7 (I was forced to file a Chapter 13 even back then). From everything I've been reading about this bill, including MaryScott's diary, it appears more to reinforce what has already existed in most states than to actually be changing anything. The only thing that appeared to be intended to change the rules much was the amendments to help or exempt people in certain groups, most of whom I don't believe were exempted previous to this bill anyway.

My debt was in no way my fault, and I tried everything in my power to pay it off. When I did file, due to the existing laws, I was not permitted to file a Chapter 7 and had to file a Chapter 13 (which does not eliminate the entire debt but requires you to pay part of the debts off), but that still was extremely helpful and allowed me to turn my life back around.

I've found it very interesting to see how many people posting here on dkos in recent days have said that they used to be Republicans or independents but because of Bush and his minions, they've decided they needed to join our forces. In fact, I'm one of them. I wrote a diary onthe story of my own eye-opening recently.

Several diaries have been written on such transformations, the most well known of which are the colorful tales of former dittohead advisorjim, which nearly always wind up on the recommended list. And a couple days ago in the comments on one diary, a whole thread started where poster after poster said they were former Republicans who came on board here out of their extreme concern for what Bush has been doing to our country.

So let's take a poll, and feel free to post your own story as a comment below.

Here's another organization to do some Internet sleuthing on: the John William Pope Foundation.

This foundation wants to create what it calls a "Western cultures" program at the University of North Carolina. "The proposed program would include an academic minor in Western cultures, new honors courses, freshman seminars, undergraduate research awards and study abroad scholarships. The foundation gave the university $25,000 to study the proposal and has said it could donate up to $700,000 a year to fund it initially."

Seventy faculty members have come out against it. One professor said a recent curriculum revision revealed no need for more emphasis in Western studies. "Are we for sale, and if so, what for, and if not, what are the guidelines?" she asked.

I wrote a comment last night about this and was encouraged to write a diary on it, so I've rewritten and expanded upon it a bit. This is the story of my enlightenment, and how and why I came over to the other side.

As a child, my parents and my friends' parents taught us that all normal, sensible, and sane people were Republicans. The Democrats were all a bunch of irrational, crazy, fringe-element nuts with ridiculous extreme ideas that, were it not for the stable counterbalance of the Republicans in office, would rapidly send the whole economy down the tubes and turn the country into a socialist or even communist state.

We'd lose all our freedoms as well as the shirts off our backs, winding up in a government-subsidized nightmare of lazy people who never worked and were a huge drain on the few that remained in the job system, who would have to support not only their own families, but all the welfare queens as well. Those who worked hard should be entitled to keep every red cent.