A new Kaiser poll reveals some interesting numbers: 60% of polled support the Affordable Care Act, 60% object to Republican attempts to block it from the budget. Support for specific elements of the law have even higher support.
These numbers are significant and show that the people like and want the law, contrary to Republican lies and the media who repeat them. How bad is the lying? 22% of people polled thought the law was repealed - where would they get so misinformed?
The Act is a law and it's been held as Constitutional by 2 of the 4 federal judges who've reviewed it. Some parts of the law won't go into effect for another few years - everything else is in full effect.
And when you start asking people about the facts of the law, they LOVE it! 70% of those who want to repeal the law, want the small business tax credit. 60% want to close the Medicare "doughnut hole", 52% want to give financial to people who can't afford private insurance, 56% want to guarantee insurance and prevent companies from denying coverage, and 40% want to increase the Medicare payroll tax on the "wealthy". This is all amongst people who want to repeal the law!
Fox News lies and people who watch Fox News buy into the lies. When you present the facts, people choose progressive options.
In December of 2009, an 80-something year-old woman swerved to avoid a car stopped behind a school bus and drove onto the curb, striking and killing a small child who had gotten off the bus. It's horrible. Tragic.
Was it preventable? The word "accident" usually means that it was unavoidable, that people did what reasonable people would do and that there was no negligence and no malice.
No one has claimed there was any malice, but was there negligence? Over the last decade or so, there have been many instances of elderly persons killing or seriously injuring others through driving mistakes. Elderly drivers often have to be tested more frequently or more thoroughly, but many continue to drive. This woman had a valid driver's license. The state said she was qualified to drive. What does that mean?
I've driven more than 300,000 miles through 40 states in cars, cargo vans, a box truck and on motorcycle. Based upon the driving I've experienced, the states, including Georgia, have very low standards for "qualified". Perhaps she was both qualified to drive and completely unprepared for that situation. Perhaps she, and thousands or hundreds of thousands like her, drive around and avoid death and injury through luck. Happens chance.
It's horrible when a child is killed. It's tragic. But in the rush to find meaning, to find a reason for why it happened, people assign blame. Someone must be responsible, they say. Maybe it's not someone. Maybe it's everyone.
Maybe there are lots of legally qualified and completely unprepared drivers. And she, and the child she killed, were just unlucky.
Our policy is based on God's biblical promise to bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse Israel and we further invite other nations and organizations to enjoy the benefits of that promise.
Christians defend Israel uniquely because of their religious beliefs, including the role of Israel in Armageddon. The US is largely biased for Israel and that is evidenced pretty well, even without the Texas GOP stating it explicitly.
When I point this out, I'm sometimes labeled "pro-Palestinian" or, when people are feeling particularly ignorant and insulting, "anti-Semitic". But, I'm not biased for or against Israel or the Palestinians. I take issue with the biased and hypocritical treatment we give Israel (and a whole host of other states and organizations) and I think our bias for Israel is detrimental to everybody, including Israelis, in part because it's become an impediment to peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Unfortunately, anything less than that biased, hypocritical, unequivocal support for Israel, or any expression of sympathy for the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, often earns a person personal attacks and slurs. Until we can be allowed to disagree without verbal insults or physical violence, the situation will not improve.
Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega arrived Tuesday morning in France -- where he was extradited to stand trial on charges that he laundered drug money.
So not only is it legal to invade a sovereign country to capture a criminal ("Watch out Switzerland, we're coming for Polanski!") and then hold him as a Prisoner Of War after his criminal sentence is complete, we can then choose to extradite him to a third country rather than back to the original country we invaded which has also filed extradition papers to try him on MURDER charges.
GA Rep Mark Hatfield Introduces Citizenship Bill Because He Likes To Talk
On Wednesday, Georgia State Representative J. Mark Hatfield, (R - Waycross) introduced a bill requiring that anyone running in a Presidential primary in the state of Georgia would have to prove they meet the citizenship requirement of the Constitution.
When did the good Mr. Hatfield introduce it? Eight calendar days before the end of the legislative session. With only three days of active session to act upon it. How can the good Mr. Hatfield expect to pass it? Well, he doesn't:
Hatfield acknowledged that there's not enough time remaining in this year's legislative session to bring up his bill for a vote, but he introduced it anyway "to start a conversation" in Georgia, with the idea of re-introducing the bill in time for consideration in next year's legislative session.
Hmm. He could have introduced it earlier this year. He could have introduced it last year. He could have introduced it the year before that, when one of the Republicans on the primary ballot was not born in the U.S. and his citizenship was in question. He didn't. He waited until absolutely nothing could be done except his bantering about it while he runs for re-election.
And he still isn't convinced that Obama is a natural born citizen and eligible to be president.
11Alive News asked Hatfield, "Do you consider yourself a 'birther?'"
"No. I wouldn't say that, at all. I'm simply a citizen who is concerned, to make sure that the Constitution is upheld and enforced."
"So you don't know one way or the other whether he is a citizen of the United States?"
"Well, of course not. I have not been given any sort of proof, one way or the other."
Uh huh. Obama's birth certificate has been presented along with birth announcements in newspapers. If say you don't know Obama's a natural born citizen, you're either a moron or a liar.
Georgia State Representative Mark Hatfield (R - Waycross) is either a moron or a liar.
The Republicans declare jihad on health care reform
Republicans, who have criticized the Democrats' initiative as a step toward government control of the healthcare system, are already planning a series of delaying tactics, including forcing the entire bill to be read aloud on the Senate floor.
"It's going to be a holy war," Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said Wednesday evening. - from the Los Angeles Times
That's right, "a holy war." They've declared jihad on health care reform.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius did a marvelous job this week of undermining the move toward evidence-based medicine with her hasty and cowardly disavowal of a recommendation from her department's own task force that women under 50 are probably better off not getting routine annual mammograms.
. . . "How many mothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, daughters and friends are we willing to lose to breast cancer while the debate goes on about the limitations of mammography?" Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, asked in an op-ed article in Thursday's Washington Post. Dr. Brawley cleverly didn't answer his own question, but the clear implication of his question was that the only acceptable number should be zero. And it is that very attitude, applied across the board to every patient and every disease, which goes a long way in explaining why ours is the most expensive, and one of the least effective, health-care systems in the industrialized world.
We're still cowering from facts, hiding in a Wonderland where if we just spend enough money, nobody has to die and nobody has to suffer. Until we own the tough choices and accept that both are inevitable, we're going cause death and suffering while trying to turn fantasy into reality.
In a letter to Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the federal appeals court judge said she is convinced that the club does not practice "invidious discrimination" and that her membership in it did not violate judicial ethics.
Firstly, "invidious discrimination" is redundant since "invidious" means "discriminatory". I know this because I looked it up. If you're going to use a word I have to look up, at least use it like you aren't named Debra Jo and married to your cousin.
Secondly, YES, if you are a member of a club which prohibits membership based on gender, it IS discriminatory. Where the fuck did Obama find this person?
I want to support her because she's Obama's pick. Flat out, she is just as, if not more, qualified judicially than either Alito or Roberts. Compared to Harriett Myers, she's King Fucking Solomon. But I'm getting less and less impressed by her interpretation of the law. She is not a "liberal" judge. She's a former prosecutor; she follows the law to the letter, even when it contradicts justice; she has the (common) oppressive view of minors, that they are property and lacking in rights; she supports Roe v. Wade.
Yeah, that last one is the clincher. Nothing else matters as long as she favors allowing you to put a pair of scissors in your son's skull before he exits your body. She isn't liberal and she isn't progressive. She's in favor of abortion rights. That's her major selling point, quickly followed by her genitalia and her ethnic background--I don't know that the last two were a requirement for nomination, only that they're being used for promotional purposes.
I want a justice who recognizes that the 4th, 5th and 6th amendments try to codify a basic tenet of the Framers: Do not EVER give the government the benefit of the doubt and the law must favor the citizen in all things, especially when accused. If the letter or the spirit of the law favors the citizen, that is which should be followed.
Craig Ferguson says we shouldn't get news from late-night comedians but they're the only ones who can tell the truth and not get fired for it. Sometimes the only way we can swallow our medicine is when it's wrapped in a sugar.
"What a welcome. That is so fabulous. And it's such an honor to be introduced by Laura Ingraham."
"It's wonderful to have Laura Ingraham on our side. You know that? She is wonderful."
Ingram spends her career degrading people for their personal lives, most notably sexual preferences. She also told her viewers to call a voter help line all at once so it would tie up the line and make it unusable for the public. It was specifically a Democratic voter help line. That's voter fraud. The Bush administration declined to prosecute.
"Today we are a nation at war. And Barack and Hillary have made their intentions clear regarding Iraq and the war on terror: They would retreat, declare defeat. And the consequence of that would be devastating. It would mean attacks on America, launched from safe havens that would make Afghanistan under the Taliban look like child's play. About this, I have no doubt."
"I'd forestall the launch of a national campaign and, frankly, I'd make it easier for Senator Clinton or Obama to win. Frankly, in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."
"I will continue to stand for conservative principles. I'll fight alongside you for all the things we believe in. And one of the things we believe in is that we cannot allow the next president of the United States to retreat in the face of evil extremism."
All are from fmr. Gov. Mitt Romney's speech 07 Feb 2008, that he was suspending his campaign for President. He was elected governor of Massachusetts because he was moderate and he was willing to work with and among both parties. It's sad that he's thrown that all away for a power grab.
To accuse your opponents of supporting our enemies is low. Slimeball Low. Mitt, are you slime?
Our policies need to be more than talking points. Though many politicians want to paint issues as right or wrong, black or white, they are entirely shades of gray. We've spent decades supporting tyrants and dictators (Hussein, Musharef), mass murderers and criminals (Pinochet, Bin Laden), choosing the side most convenient for our monetary interest while ignoring the ethical questions of supporting butchers.
Mitt, your arguments are worthless. You seek to ignore serious debate and instead paint patriots as traitors. You decry debate and seek defamation. Your positions are so without merit that you attack the personage of those with whom you disagree.
In his path toward the Republican nomination, McCain has been continually hammered by conservatives including influential talk show host Rush Limbaugh, commentator and author Ann Coulter, and James Dobson, the evangelical Christian founder of Focus on the Family. Jennifer Parker, McCain's Problem on the Right (ABC News)
And THAT would be why I'm not a member of the Republican party: I won't associate myself with the ethicless scum that control the party.
Police, saying they were responding to citizen complaints, carted away two large promotional photographs from the Abercrombie & Fitch store in Lynnhaven Mall on Saturday and cited the manager on obscenity charges.
The photos were pretty tame. It's ridiculous that we actually consider the naked body to be obscene; being naked in public will get you registered as a sex offender which is automatically assumed to mean you're a child molester.
Oh, speaking of child molesters, some sick fuck in Canada-ay molested another grand-daughter when he was on parole for impregnated the first. Yet the family welcomed him back with open arms.
At the time of the incident, the man was on parole after serving two years of a five-year sentence for incest. He had sexually abused another granddaughter several times when she was 12 and 13, and only admitted it when DNA tests proved he fathered his own great-granddaughter.
On a humorous note, the Winnipeg Sun had a slight ad mishap when I looked at the article:
From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs! Karl Marx, Critique of the Gotha Program (1875)
All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one's need. Acts of the Apostles 2:44-45
There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need. Acts of the Apostles 4:34-35
In the United Kingdom, the House of Lords has overruled the High Court and removed a limitation that said victims had only six years to sue their perpetrators for compensation. How long do they have now? Eternity. Yup, sexual assaults are a special case where the idea of a speedy trial is absurd.
Yeah, the newsworthy case is the one where the rapist got 7 million pounds in the lottery, after the time limit had passed. Here's a news flash--good things happen to bad people along with the bad things that happen to good people. I'm sorry, that's life. But don't go around fucking up established law for one or two cases that are egregious.
The limitations are there to protect the rights of everyone. There are some rights people cannot have taken away. Even when those people commit crimes, even the most abhorrent.
Don't be jealous, though, the government will get around to stripping your rights soon.
In October, a group of first-year law students at the University of Texas at Austin were chided by the dean for participating in a “Ghetto Fabulous”-themed costume party and posting pictures online. Partygoers carried 40-ounce bottles of malt liquor and wore Afro wigs, necklaces with large medallions and name tags bearing historically black and Hispanic names.
But don't be afraid, the government is ready to crack down on these horrific parties that occur on private property and without public funding or support and involve no one getting hurt.
“If you look up the definitions for stereotype, bigot and prejudice, you will see they all mean the same thing. All those words are based on prejudging another class of people, which is exactly what Dr. King was fighting against,” [State Rep. Garnet F. Coleman, D-Houston] said in a statement. “What these students did and the day they did it on shows they were trying to be purposefully ignorant and prejudiced.”
Actually, Mr. State Representative, "stereotype", "bigot" and "prejudice" mean different things.
"``Would you patronize a streetwalker?'' No, I would treat her as an equal."
"``I didn't like to come to your town anymore. What makes New York so crummy these days?'' Uh, tourists."
"``Have you ever committed adultery in your mind?'' Um. Not in my mind."
"``Who do you think has the most charisma between Ford and Carter?`` Actually, anybody between Ford and Carter." Dick Cavett, reading questions during the monologue on Saturday Night Live, 13 Nov 1976
Antonin Scalia asks if it's is in the Constitution
SCOTUS is hearing a challenge to executions by lethal injection, on the premise that the injections cause unnecessary pain:
Justice Antonin Scalia noted that execution methods that have fallen out of use — the electric chair, the firing squad, the hangman’s noose — have been abandoned in part because of fears that they were not pain-free.
But where is it written that the state must choose “the least painful method,” Justice Scalia demanded. “Is that somewhere in the Constitution?”
Ahem. The intelligent refer the stupid to Amendment VIII ("eight") of the U.S. Constitution:
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
cruel adj. cru·el·er or cru·el·ler, cru·el·est or cru·el·lest 1. Disposed to inflict pain or suffering. 2. Causing suffering; painful.
So if there's a less painful method available and you choose the more painful one, that would seem cruel. Good to know ol' Tony is up on his Constitution. Dumbfuck.
The Atlanta City Council passed a resolution barring anyone under 21 from businesses that serve alcohol (excepting a few, such as groceries and restaurants). Their logic is, "Since a person under 21 can't drink in a nightclub, they should not be in these establishments." Balderdash.
New York City had a rule (maybe still does) that you had to be 13 to be at the bar (sitting or standing). I know this because I was shooed away from the bar and back to my table a few times when I wasn't yet 13. I wasn't anywhere close to 13, truthfully. Bars serve food and they also show pay-per-view sporting events--that was reason enough for me to be there in grade school.
When I came to college, years before I could drink, I'd still go to bars and clubs with friends. I wasn't drinking but I was still able to have fun. It's a false assumption that the only reason people go to bars or clubs or such is to drink--they go to socialize and drinking is how the businesses are able to pay the bills.
Atlanta is working very hard to make the city unpalatable for anyone under 50. They're turning Buckhead into Disneyland with shopping malls and tourist traps. Midtown has been gutted and little local flavor remains, replaced by condos. An event center I frequent has been in a battle to get licenses for a larger space and is being battled by a group that doesn't want us there (the battle has been pretty harsh, with someone printing fake flyers advertising illegal events at the space).
I started going over to Decatur to drink. I don't have to deal with smokers, they pour later (though I'm rarely out that late anymore), and the city and county seem to WANT my business. Atlanta will quickly learn that the old farts trying to make the city quiet aren't willing to pay the taxes that the businesses provide.
Remember, remember the Fifth of November, The Gunpowder Treason and Plot, I know of no reason Why Gunpowder Treason Should ever be forgot.
5th November, 1605, the Gunpowder Plot was foiled. Catholic conspirators attempted to blow up Parliament and kill the Protestant government of England in retaliation for religious persecution. One of those executed for his "part" in the plot was a Catholic priest who heard the confession of one of the conspirators.
"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." --Thomas Jefferson
"Thank god Condoleeza Rice was wearing the Bush administration's No-Comment-I-Don't-Recall Amulet of Unaccountability." --Jon Stewart, 20071030, on her testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
