Truth!

 

Republican Health Care

Amen.

Single Payer

Have you forgotten?

How shocking. I never would have imagined....

I am shocked — shocked— to find that gambling is going on in here!



Denial-of-service tool targeting Healthcare.gov site discovered

Dad Calls Cops on Son to Teach Him a Lesson, Cops Shoot Son Dead

Fracking Victim Sued for Defamation After Proving Drinking Water Flammable

Republicans don't speak for women's rights when they try and deny abortion access.

Teachers aren't actually the problem.

It must be the language that divides us.  And our totally different ways of life and histories across our nation.

Jumble sale....

Nobody knows who's running the place?  The NSA at its best.

This should make you feel happier....

Jeffrey Wiese, the nation's top oil and gas pipeline safety official, recently strode to a dais beneath crystal chandeliers at a New Orleans hotel to let his audience in on an open secret: the regulatory process he oversees is "kind of dying." 

Wiese told several hundred oil and gas pipeline compliance officers that his agency, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration (PHMSA), has "very few tools to work with" in enforcing safety rules even after Congress in 2011 allowed it to impose higher fines on companies that cause major accidents. 

"Do I think I can hurt a major international corporation with a $2 million civil penalty? No," he said. Because generating a new pipeline rule can take as long as three years,

Wiese said PHMSA is creating a YouTube channel to persuade the industry to voluntarily improve its safety operations. "We'll be trying to socialize these concepts long before we get to regulations."

Saving the farmland soil.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story.

Health care in America explained.

Merika the Beuuutiful...

WTF Americans?!

The face of guilt.

Militarized police overreach (After the raid, the shooting of the family dogs and the trashing of their house)

Two days later, after the raid had made national and international news, the Prince George’s County Police Department finally cleared Cheye Calvo and his family of any wrongdoing. They did it by way of a press release they put out at 4:30 p.m. on a Friday, the time and day of the week when bad news is typically buried. It also happened to be the night of the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. 

Perhaps even more baffling, officials continued to insist that the raid shouldn’t have happened any other way. Even as they acknowledged that Calvo and his family were innocent, in the months and years following the raid they would repeat again and again that not a single officer did anything wrong, and that no one had any reason for remorse.

And when they give up all pretense, you get this: Payday Loans And High-Powered Weaponry: Arizona Businessman Linked To Armed Patrols In Wisconsin Woods and more about it here.

Because they don't really care about children or fetuses, they care about saying no to sex. Your sex. Texas Abortion Bill Author In 2007: No Health Care For Unborn Because 'They're Not Born Yet'  Apparently politicians would back off trying to control women's bodies if we had vaginas that shot bullets...

One reason why I'm really careful about where my seafood comes from:

Japan’s nuclear watchdog said Wednesday the crippled Fukushima reactors are very likely leaking highly radioactive substances into the Pacific Ocean. 

Members of the Nuclear Regulation Authority voiced frustration at Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), which has failed to identify the source and the cause of spiking readings of radioactive materials in groundwater. 

“It is strongly suspected that highly concentrated contaminated waste water has leaked to the ground and has spread to the sea,” the authority said in its written review of TEPCO’s recent announcements.

Resistance to Monsanto's control of seeds.

The international resistance against Monsanto and the genetic manipulation of the food supply has advanced to an all new level, with countless citizens around the world taking the fight online and partaking in the Monsanto Video Revolt grassroots movement. Though scheduled to officially take place on July 24th, we’ve seen thousands of citizens around the world upload their videos exposing Monsanto from as far away as Nigeria and Thailand.

And pesticide sales are skyrocketing even though people are aware of "the declining effectiveness of GMO-seed giant Monsanto's flagship products: crops engineered to resist insects and withstand herbicides."

Making fake food look real by putting in fake imperfections.

Here's a cat and some clutter

A Russian Pallas Wild cat.

One million Brits 'descended from Romans'

For parents of a genderqueer child.

One sentence to describe what's wrong with health care.

Around the world

How astonishing and unexpected!! Pipeline spill sends 22,000 barrels of oil mix into Alberta muskeg

Whether she will see any of this money is another thing... Woman Who Couldn’t Be Intimidated By Citigroup Wins $31 Million

Oklahoma Rape Victim Denied Emergency Contraceptives. Doctor Cites Religious Objection As Reason. I think suing the doctor (and the nurse who also refused to help) for 18 years of child support might get her attention.

Building tiny houses.. or should I say minimalist housing.

Big corporate fat cat thinks big corporations shouldn't pay taxes like real people.

A WWII Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk is found preserved in the Sahara.

Know your rights if you photograph police.

Because the poor women need to be told what they think? In media reports on women’s issues—abortion, birth control, Planned Parenthood—men are quoted around five times more than women, a new study shows.

Oh NOES!! We're gonna crash! NASA's Hubble Shows Milky Way is Destined for Head-on Collision with Andromeda Galaxy

Compare and contrast: Republican spokesman: ‘Let’s hurl some acid’ at female Democratic senators to these articles about real acid attacks.  Really?  You want to carefully think about what you said, sir?  Are you aware of what you have actually suggested?

What getting rid of Obamacare would really mean to the Republicans:

All of which exposes how problematic the GOP’s two-year-long posture of total repeal always was. As a short-term political posture, it has served them well. But now that the Supreme Court might give them what they want, they’re forced to deal with the reality of what it would mean. And that’s a huge wake-up call for the party, especially one without a clear leader to herd the cats as they figure out their next move. As one Republican health care aide put it to TPM, “I do think some Republicans are finally starting to realize they could be the dog that caught the car.”

Be careful what you wish for... you may get it.

The harm ALEC has done

May not be undone, but at least the rock has been moved a bit and we can see the slime underneath....

As ALEC whines and twirls in a strange dance of damage control, remember that the Stand Your Ground law that triggered the corporate exodus from them is only the tip of the iceberg. They have done grave harm to many states and most people. Whether it's education, Voter ID, health care, guns, or taxes, ALEC is the author of far too much turnkey legislation with deep and barbarous cuts to those institutions we hold dear in this country, like schools, and hospitals, and public streets. They deserve no sympathy, nor quarter. They should be accountable for each and every evil they have wrought on states and people who live in them, and those who sponsor their efforts should be equally accountable, even those who claim to have noble motives, like the Gates Foundation.

To and fro

Registration of Guns and Licensing of Gun Owners from the Alien Perspective

Two interesting posts from Juan Cole: Israeli Ads against Marriage with American Jews are Part of a Population War   and Theocratic Dominance of the New Egypt may be Exaggerated

We've used PayPal with great success... because we are customers.  Apparently those who sell things often have a different experience.  The evils of PayPal.  Numbers of PayPal higher-ups.  Another person's experience and his Reddit post.  An anti-PayPal site.

Paul Krugman's take on the GOP's field of candidates:  Send in the Clueless.

Think about what it takes to be a viable Republican candidate today. You have to denounce Big Government and high taxes without alienating the older voters who were the key to G.O.P. victories last year — and who, even as they declare their hatred of government, will balk at any hint of cuts to Social Security and Medicare (death panels!).
And you also have to denounce President Obama, who enacted a Republican-designed health reform and killed Osama bin Laden, as a radical socialist who is undermining American security.
So what kind of politician can meet these basic G.O.P. requirements? There are only two ways to make the cut: to be totally cynical or totally clueless.

For women cartoonists.. if any...  (I talked about this way back in 2007.)

One more thing in the Affordable Care Act that helps.

You have health care? You are still not safe.

Answer the question

How can they call themselves Anti-choice and Pro-family

And demand that embryos are human beings with all Constitutional rights.... And then cheer Rick Perry's execution count...

And Ron Paul's statement that the uninsured should just die:

And not see the utter hypocrisy and contradiction? Do these people actually know the kind of society they are cheering for?

Brazen hussies unleashed!

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

The bullying ends

Here.

Sometimes taxes are necessary

Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times discusses California's Governor Brown's tax proposal:

We're not talking about peanuts. The average hit for those taxes is $260 per person each year, or $1,040 for a family of four. But what's the cost of not extending them?

It would be huge, and it's not just liberals who are saying so. After looking at what the effect would be on education, healthcare and public safety, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce has endorsed the extension as long as the deal includes future spending caps and pension reform.

California is, in fact, a relatively high-tax state, though not the highest. In 2009, the combined state and local tax burden was 10.6% of personal income, as opposed to the 9.8% national average. As my colleague George Skelton pointed out earlier this month, state general fund spending has dropped by billions in recent years, with next year's spending per $100 of personal income projected to be the lowest since Ronald Reagan was governor.

We need to give these out for free....

click to embiggen...

Welcome to the party, pal!

Ask any House Republican about repealing President Barack Obama’s health care law, and you’ll get the same fiery, self-assured talking points about tearing down what Speaker John Boehner has called a “monstrosity.”

But talk to some of the 16 freshman lawmakers who have declined their government health benefits, and you’ll hear a different side of the story — about tough out-of-pocket expenses, pre-existing conditions and support for health reforms that would help those who struggle with their coverage. As they venture into the free market for health insurance, these lawmakers — many of whom swept into office fueled by tea party anger over the health care law — are facing monthly premiums of $1,200 and fears of double-digit rate hikes.

What on earth do you think we've been yelling about for years?