Americans Want to Keep Affordable Care Act
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 How bad is the lying? 22% of people polled thought the law was repealed - where would they get so misinformed?
Could it be these Fox News articles?
America Rising: Obamacare Repealed in the HouseHouse Republicans Vote to Overturn ObamaCare in Symbolic MoveJudge Rules Health Care Law Is UnconstitutionalThe Act is a law and it's been held as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.
Labels: affordable care act, constitution, fox news, government, health care, kaiser poll, politics, progressive, republican
Texas GOP supports Israel because God said so
From the
Texas GOP party platform, under the heading of "Israel":
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.
Labels: god, government, israel, palestinian, politics, religion, republican, texas
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.
Labels: health care, jihad, medicine, orrin hatch, politics, republican
QOTD: GOP thinks Greenland was actually green.
"We are cooling. We are not warming. The warming you see out there, the supposed warming, and I am using my finger quotation marks here, is part of the cooling process. Greenland, which is now covered in ice, it was once called Greenland for a reason, right? Iceland, which is now green.
-- GOP Chairman, Michael Steele, guest hosting Bill Bennett's syndicated radio show Morning In America
I bet he watched FDR's fireside chats on television.
There really is a difference between the flubs that happen when everything you say is recorded and dissected (think of what you've said today) and completely made-up "facts" that you use to counter science.
I want to like Steele, I really do. Something gives me the impression he's playing the extremist but is a bit more moderate, and I want to encourage that. But... then he gives a rimjob to Rush and says "I'm pro-choice except when it involves choice" and counters scientific arguments with complete and utter bullshit. I can forgive political maneuverings or some "Where am I?" road fatigue. I can't forgive "Hey, I'm going to completely talk out of my ass about something that's completely false so I can score a political point against scientific fact."
Yeah. Fuck Michael Steele and the nutjob horse he rode in on.
Labels: global warming, greenland, michael steele, republican, rush limbaugh
Dan Savage on hot teenagers, asshole parents and vows that you may come to regret...
I tried cutting this down to a paragraph or two but it didn't work. The punchlines are funny but they are only there to lighten otherwise horrific truths and people
need to recognize the truth.
The 17-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin, the GOP's vice-presidential nominee, is pregnant. The news was released by the McCain camp during a busy week—a hurricane, the Republican National Convention, Dick Cheney getting us into a war with Russia—so it didn't receive the coverage it deserved. To recap:
Seventeen-year-old Bristol Palin got her ass knocked up five or so months ago by 18-year-old Levi Johnston. Among the hobbies listed on Levi's since-yanked MySpace page—"fishing, shoot some shit, and just fuckin' chillin'"—was this revealing tidbit: "I don't want kids." But Bristol, says her mom, "made the decision on her own to keep the baby," and is now engaged to Levi "Shootin' Shit" Johnston.
As the adoptive parent of a child born to a pair of unwed teenagers, I'm certainly not in favor of abortion in all circumstances. But I believe that it's a choice teenagers should be able to make for themselves—with input from their families whenever possible—and, so it seems, does the GOP's VP nominee. Sarah Palin is pleased that her daughter made the decision—on her own—to keep the baby.
But Sarah Palin doesn't believe that other girls should be able to make their own decisions. Sarah Palin believes abortion should be illegal in almost every instance—including rape and incest. So Bristol Palin is being celebrated for making a choice that Sarah Palin would like to take away from all other American women. Apparently, today's GOP believes that choice is a special right reserved for the wayward daughters of Republican elected officials.
Oh, and Sarah Palin also believes that birth control shouldn't be made available to teenagers, she opposes medically accurate sex education, and she backs abstinence-until- marriage sex "education."
Sigh.
The GOP has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into abstinence "education" programs during the Bush years. I believe this enormous investment of public funds begs the obvious question: Is our children abstaining? Sarah Palin's aren't. Despite this massive outlay on the part of the American taxpayer and the example set by her Christian parents, Bristol Palin became sexually active while still in high school. Excuse me, but if abstinence education can't keep the daughter of the evangelical governor of Alaska off the cock, what hope is there for the daughters—and some of the sons—of average Americans?
I'm a cad for writing this, of course, because shortly before Bristol and Levi were paraded before cheering throngs at the Republican National Convention, the Palins asked the media to respect their daughter's privacy.
Another special right: When it comes to respecting your family's privacy, Palin and the GOP see no need. They want to micromanage the most intimate aspects of your private life. And if their own kids fail to live up to the standards that Palin and the GOP seek to impose on your family, well, that's a private matter between the Palins, their daughter, their God, and the thousands of screaming imbeciles in elephant hats waving McCain/Palin signs on the floor of the Republican National Convention.
- Dan Savage, Savage Love: Teen Beat
Labels: 2008 election, abortion, bristol palin, dan savage, republican, sarah palin, savage love, sex, sex education
Virginia is for lovers!
"Vito Fossella of New York, will retire from his House seat at the end of this term. Mr. Fossella revealed recently that he secretly fathered a child in Virginia."
(as reported in the New York Times)
Labels: 2008 election, adultery, congress, government, new york, republican, sex, vito fossella
QOTD: Why am I not a Republican (part deux)
"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.
Labels: 2008 election, government, iraq, laura ingraham, mitt romney, politics, republican
Why am I not a Republican?
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.
Labels: coulter, limbaugh, mccain, politics, republican
