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Dear Representative Barber,
June 30, 2012
by
by David Safier Dear Representative Barber, I write this as someone who expended a bit of sweat and treasure in your recent campaign and plan to do so again between now and November. I'm a supporter, but a more cautious supporter today than I was a few days ago. Your two recent votes, one risking … Read more
There goes The History Channel’s ‘Apocalypse Day’ programming
June 30, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
I love The History Channel (THC) on the rare occasions that it actually airs a program about history. But so much of what THC broadcasts is pseudo-historical nonsense. I mean American Pickers, Pawn Stars and Swamp People — seriously? Then there is THC's theme days: Aliens/UFO Files, Monster Quest, Mega Disasters, and the worst, Apocalypse-slash-Armageddon. This is history?
A common thread to Apocalypse-slash-Armageddon day, and even Aliens/UFO Files day, is the supposed Mayan calendar prediction that the world will come to an end on December 21, 2012. Recently a new Mayan codex was discovered in Guatemala, and it has now been interpreted. It looks like you can make plans for Christmas this year after all! Maya calendar just end of cycle, not doomsday date, scholar says:
Waiting for the end of the world on Dec. 21? Doomsdayers may be disappointed.
A University of Texas art history professor has deciphered a reference in Maya hieroglyphs to the so-called doomsday date of Dec. 21, 2012, and has found that there is no prediction about the end of time.
David Stuart unlocked the meaning of hieroglyphs at an archaeological site in Guatemala. He says the hieroglyphs suggest that the 2012 reference was instead a bit of political spin on the part of a Maya ruler hoping to assuage his followers after he was defeated in battle.
The ruler said the defeat was just part of a larger cycle of time, one that would end in 2012, after which another cycle would begin.
FactCheck.org on the ‘ObamneyCare’ tax
June 30, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Arizona Republic should just drop all pretense about being an objective news organization and return to its roots and original masthead, The Arizona Republican. It is, and has always been, the media arm of the Republican Party in Arizona.
On Friday, the Republican published a series of opinions decrying the Supreme Court decision on the Affordable Care Act. So much sturm und drang, so much conservative bedwetting. One unsigned opinion in particular caught my attention. So, we'll be penalized with higher taxes:
The decision affirms that on June 25, 2010, President Obama signed a health-care law that levies a substantial, new set of taxes that, according to congressional estimates, perhaps 75 percent of people earning less than $200,000 per year will pay.
Note the imprecise source citation "congressional estimates." I did a Google search for the source of this claim and, surprise, it comes from Stephen Moore of Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal, one of the most unreliable sources in the business. And why is this opinion not properly attributed to Stephen Moore? Here is the original. Political Diary: The ObamaCare Tax – WSJ.com:
According to Congressional figures 70% to 75% of the "tax" falls on those who earn less than $200,000 per year, and that is 8 million non-rich people. So Mr. Obama argued this was a mandate and a fine to enforce the requirement to buy health care.
Well, that changes everything. The Republican would have you believe that 75 percent of all Americans earning less than $200,000 will be paying more in taxes. That is not what Stephen Moore said. He is saying that of those people who opt to pay the penalty (tax) rather than purchase healthcare insurance, 70% to 75% of them will earn less than $200,000 per year. And that is a relatively small number. This is the game of "fun with facts and figures" to lie to you from The Arizona Republican.
Stephen Moore is an unreliable source, so I am sure as hell not going to take his word for it. It turns out that FactCheck.org has run its fact check of the "ObamneyCare" tax. FactCheck.org : How Much Is the Obamacare ‘Tax’?:
How Many Will Pay?
In his opinion, Chief Justice Roberts cited an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that 4 million would pay, and cited that as a further reason to consider the assessment a tax rather than a penalty. “Congress did not think it was creating four million outlaws,” he suggested.
However, since then, CBO has increased its estimate. In an estimate released in March of this year, CBO projected that the tax would yield $6 billion for the government, up from the $4 billion it estimated two years earlier. That’s a 50 percent higher total, and would seem to imply that CBO now expects about 6 million will be paying. But CBO didn’t give a specific figure for the number of persons it now expects to pay.
– Brooks Jackson
‘ObamneyCare’ is a Tax
June 29, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The GOP really didn’t have a “Plan B” if the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act. They were cocksure the fix was in.
But Chief Justice John Roberts provided them one: his opinion called “Obamacare” a “tax.”
Well, there’s nothing that excites a Tea-Publican like taxes. Opposing any and all taxes is their first commandment from the only lord and master they worship, Grover Norquist.
It didn’t take long before the mighty Wurlitzer of the right-wing noise machine had Tea-Publicans all singing from their favorite hymnal: “Taxes! Taxes! Taxes!” Even Willard “Mittens” Romney delivered one of his patented lie-a-sentence (sometimes two!) statements decrying “Obamacare” as a tax increase.
Mittens shouldn’t be throwing stones at glass houses. ObamaCare is modeled on RomneyCare, and RomneyCare was a tax as well. Mittens said so.
Greg Sargent writes Flashback: Romney admitted his mandate was a tax:
ABC News’s Michael Falcone unearths video of Mitt Romney admitting, in a 2008 presidential debate, that the individual mandate he passed as Governor of Massachusetts was a tax:
CHARLIE GIBSON: Governor, [inaudible] you imposed tax penalties in Massachusetts [inaudible].
ROMNEY: Yes, we said, look, if people can afford to buy it, either buy the insurance or pay your own way; don’t be free-riders and pass on the cost to your health care to everybody else…
The central argument that Republicans have been making in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling — which upheld the indivual mandate as a tax — is that it proves Obama foisted a massive tax hike on the nation. Yet Romney admitted that his own mandate was a tax, too.
* * *
Mitt Romney, in a 2009 USA Today Op ed:
Using tax penalties, as we did, or tax credits, as others have proposed, encourages “free riders” to take responsibility for themselves rather than pass their medical costs on to others.
Rick “man on dog” Santorum told voters in Wisconsin, “Pick any other Republican in the country. [Romney] is the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama.”
Yesterday’s developments prove that Santorum was right. So let’s just call it “ObamneyCare” from now on. Obama should hold Mittens close in a clench — “It’s your plan, buddy! When you attack me you attack yourself.” Turn Romney’s “I’m rubber, you’re glue” strategy against him.
Fact Checking the mendacity of ‘Mittens’
June 29, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Time once again for Steve Benen's weekly fact check of the shameless shapeshifter and pathological liar, Willard "Mittens" Romney. Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XXIV: The NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll that came out this week included an interesting, open-ended question: "What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think … Read more
Winning begets winning: the ‘less-than-do-nothing’ Tea-Publican Congress actually passed some bills today
June 29, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
You know what they say, "winning begets winning." After their victory in the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, President Obama and Democratic leaders finally got the "less-than-do-nothing" Tea-Publican Congress to move on critical bills before leaving town for the July 4th recess. Ah, smells like success! Congress Passes Highway Funds, Extend Lower Student Loan Rate:
Congress on Friday approved legislation that will extend federal highway programs through 2014, a low interest rate on student loans for one year, and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for five years.
Leaders in the House and Senate negotiated the giant package, leaving no doubt that it would have enough support to pass. The bill will likely be the last major piece of legislation approved by Congress until after the November elections.
The House voted 373-52 in favor of the bill, which was supported by every voting Democrat, while 52 Republicans opposed it. In the Senate, the tally was 74-19, with 23 Republicans joining every Democrat in voting for the measure. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) voted present, while Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) missed the vote.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Obama looks forward to signing the bill.
Tonight Show: Obama victory dance
June 29, 2012
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Jay Leno began his monologue on the Tonight Show with the Supreme Court decision on "Obamacare." Leno asked his audience, "You know what that means? You get a chest x-ray, you get a chest x-ray, everybody. You get a prostate exam. Everybody."
Leno continued, "This is a major victory for President Obama who spent three years promoting it, and of course a major setback for Mitt Romney who spent three years creating it."
The Tonight Show crew thought President Obama was too reserved in his address to the nation, so they put together this mock video of how they imagined Obama celebrated his victory before addressing the nation.
Obama gets his groove on in the video below the fold.
h/t the humorless NewsBusters
