Month: September 2013

GOP’s latest hostage demand: ‘not even a plausible bid. It’s a cry for help.’

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Ezra Klein sums up the latest Tea-Publican hostage demand to extort concessions from Democrats in exchange for not destroying the American economy:

Wonkbook: The House’s debt-ceiling bill is…wow

It's not even a plausible opening bid. It's a cry for help.

More from Klein's post:

John Boehner isn't even trying to pretend his House of Representatives is a sane place anymore.

The House GOP's debt limit bill — obtained by the National Review — isn't a serious governing document. It's not even a plausible opening bid. It's a cry for help.

HostageIn return for a one-year suspension of the debt ceiling, House
Republicans are demanding a yearlong delay of Obamacare, Rep. Paul
Ryan’s tax reform plan, the Keystone XL pipeline, more offshore oil
drilling, more drilling on federally protected lands, rewriting of ash
coal regulations, a suspension of the Environmental Protection Agency’s
efforts to regulate carbon emissions, more power over the regulatory
process in general, reform of the federal employee retirement program,
an overhaul of the Dodd-Frank financial regulations, more power over the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s budget, repeal of the Social
Services Block Grant, more means-testing in Medicare, repeal of the
Public Health trust fund, and more.

It's tempting to think that this is Boehner teaching his conference a
lesson. They told him what they wanted, and he's going to let them have
it — good and hard. House Republicans are walking into the
debt-ceiling negotiations with an opening bid that makes them look
ridiculous. This looks like an Onion parody of what the House's
debt-ceiling demands might be. It's a wonder it's not written in comic
sans.

Countdown to the Health Insurance Marketplace

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

FiveThe Tucson Weekly — which is out with its annual "Best of Tucson" edition today, be sure to pick up a copy — has a Guest Commentary from Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild explaining the Health Insurance Marketplace:

On Oct. 1, open enrollment begins for the Health Insurance
Marketplace, part of the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, also known as
Obamacare. Whether you were for or against this legislation, it's here,
it's the law of the land, and here's what you need to know.

Young adults were some of the first beneficiaries of the ACA, which
made it possible for them to stay on their parents' health plans until
age 26 regardless of whether they're in school or where they live.
Already, this provision has helped more than 3 million young adults get
coverage.

The ACA eliminated many barriers to becoming insured. You cannot be
discriminated against for pre-existing health conditions or gender. (The
ACA banned the common practice of charging women higher premiums than
men.)

The ACA eliminated other questionable practices, too, such as
lifetime or annual caps on coverage, or canceling coverage for making a
mistake on your insurance application. You cannot run out of coverage
because you've hit your dollar limit with a catastrophic illness or
injury, and you cannot have your coverage canceled—in some cases,
retroactively—because you filled out a form incorrectly.

These changes apply to all health insurance plans, whether you get
coverage through your employer, your parents or buy it yourself.

Plus, the ACA strengthened Medicare, which has already saved Arizonans nearly $123 million in prescription drug costs.

Tennessee man shows that the need for tolerance in the US has never been greater; ABC News shows that the need for editors in the US has never been greater

by

By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings

 

First, the part about tolerance, or the lack thereof, in the US.

From ABC News/Good Morning America, via Yahoo! News, written by Alexis Shaw –

A Tennessee school district has cancelled some field trips to religious venues after a parent complained that a teacher was pushing "Islamic tolerance" on students.

Mike Conner, 46, of Hendersonville, Tenn., told ABC News that he felt his 14-year-old step daughter's
teacher was intentionally giving Islam a greater emphasis than other
religions in her Honors World Studies curriculum. The popular elective
at the suburban Nashville school with 1,500 students examines five major
world religions but only schedules field trips to two houses of worship
– a mosque and a Hindu temple. 

In
some parts of the country apparently the possibility that children may
be taught that "people with different religious beliefs (or non-beliefs) aren't all wild-eyed terrorists" is the sort of un-American activity that must be sniffed out and snuffed out.

Now, the part about editors, or the lack thereof, in the US.

Time for a BOLO in Tucson?

by

By Craig McDermott, cross-posted from Random Musings   From the Twitter feed of former state senator Frank Antenori, posted a few minutes ago –          

Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio’s Birther attorney and groupie, Larry Klayman, calls for a ‘coup’ against President Obama

by

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio's Birther attorney and groupie, Larry Klayman, who represented Citizens to Protect Fair Election Results, the Birther front group that sued Respect Arizona, the committee that tried to recall Arpaio, Birthers of the World Unite: Larry Klayman to Represent Group Defending Joe Arpaio, is back in the news again.

Judicial Watch founder Larry Klayman, who has previously called for an armed revolution in his WorldNutDaily column, is again calling for a "coup" against President Obama. Conservative Attorney Larry Klayman Sets Date For Coup Against Obama:

The conservative attorney and birther who called for a coup against
President Barack Obama earlier this month has scheduled what he's
describing as a "day of reckoning." 

Larry Klayman wrote Monday in Renew America
that he's established Nov. 19 as the date that Obama will be forced to
answer for his "criminality" and "Muslim, socialist, anti-Semitic,
anti-Christian, anti-white, pro-illegal immigrant, pro-radical gay and
lesbian agenda."

Klayman said he hopes his supporters will "descend on Washington,
D.C., en masse, and demand that [Obama] leave town and resign from
office if he does not want to face prison time."

As he did earlier this month when he first floated his coup proposal, Klayman invoked the example of Egyptians toppling President Mohammed Morsi.