Today's Pix

Doonesbury Wednesday

Fight The Fight

This is what I was talking about in something I posted a few days ago (Where To Fight).

From a post at Balloon Juice:

Doonesbury Tuesday

Wendell Rides Again

I'd not been aware that Wendell Potter was putting this stiff out regularly, but there he is over at MichaelMoore.com

Some of the best circularity I've come across in a long time:

Health insurers often complain that one of the chief reasons why they are having a difficult time at the negotiating table with hospitals these days is because of consolidation. The reason for that consolidation, however, is the exploding problem of uncompensated care, hospitals have no choice but to consolidate. Well, they actually do have another choice: close. Which is what many hospitals have had to do because they could not find a willing partner with which to affiliate.

Read some of Wendell's posts and then tell me Obama's not trying to do right by us.

(hat tip = VWE)

Something Good

As stoopid as our legislature and some of our preachers make us look (especially so lately), it's good to remember Viginians manage to do the right thing on occasion too.

A pair of Bald Eagles is nesting somewhere in Richmond, down on the James River.  The two eggs are expected to hatch this week.

via Richmond Times-Dispatch




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Doonesbury Monday

Affordable Care

From Daily Kos via Democratic Underground:

1. There will be non-profit insurers offering health care plans in the exchanges on top of traditional private insurers (regulated STRONGLY by the health care law). The public option never really disappeared. It was just replaced with non-profit language that will turn into non-profit options just as strong as the proposed public option. Besides, many states are integrating public options into their exchanges.

2. Medicaid will be significantly expanded to 15 million poor uninsured americans in 2014. People in deep poverty will have significantly better lives. Everyone at less than 133% of the poverty level will be covered under medicaid. Native Americans will be insured for the first time in their lives and will enjoy modernized health care. The Indian Health Care Act is reauthorized and strengthened by this medicaid expansion.

3. Medicare's trust fund will be extended 12 years. Seniors have free preventive care and check ups. Lots of money have been saved through waste trimming and fraud recollecting.

4. Small business tax credits will have their amounts magnified for small businesses in 2014. When juxtaposed with the strongly regulated exchanges, coverage will be very affordable for small businesses.

This is what Repubs are trying so desperately to repeal.

And if you're all about helping the little guy in business for himself and strokin' along and doin' his best to make the dream come true, all you have to do is look at number 4 - now how exactly do you vote for somebody who's mouthin' off about Repeal-And-Replace?

And So It Goes

I love the fact that new-ish technologies are getting to be common enough (and easy enough to use) that people of not inconsiderable talent have good ways to let it all out.

Fire With Fire

From Dayton Daily News:

Before getting a prescription for Viagra or other erectile dysfunction drugs, men would have to see a sex therapist, receive a cardiac stress test and get a notarized affidavit signed by a sexual partner affirming impotency, if state Sen. Nina Turner has her way.

I've lost count of the times some good smart Dems have stepped up and put themselves on the line over these issues, and I hope we can look forward to a lot more.

(hat tip = Democratic Underground)

The Right To Free Speech

You have the right to speak freely.  You have no right to demand a paycheck for it.

Speak your mind at the bar or at church or on the street corner, and you have a reasonable expectation to be left alone to say whatever you wanna say (within certain limits).

When you're being paid to speak, you have an obligation to stay within guidelines that your employer gets to draw.  Stick to your script - get paid.  Go off on your own, and you're on your own.  And we wish you the very best of luck in all your future endeavors.

I'm not crazy about boycotts because they tend to hurt local business people (ie: neighbors) while leaving the big dogs more or less untouched.  That said, I still think it's a really good idea for consumers to vote with their feet if they feel the need, and with their emails whenever they get a chance.  Smart companies know they have to listen to their customers.  They spend many millions every year trying to convince us they're in line with the trends they spend other millions trying to get us to tell them about.  When we take a few minutes to sign a petition or send an email thru their websites or leave critical comments on their facebook pages, they notice.

So when Rush Limbaugh gets slapped around (finally) for being - for having been for a very long time - a complete punk-ass rent-a-con, what we may be seeing is a kind of self-correction; the immune system of the body politic at work.

I dunno, of course, but it looks a lot like cause and effect to me.  Pay a guy to do something and that's what he does.  Stop payin' him to do it and he's likely to stop doin' it.

(hat tip and inspiration = driftglass)

Significant If True

This could just as well be a hoax, but even if it is, it's fun to think that this is what the result of solid political action sounds like.

(hat tip = Daily Kos)

Where To Fight

It's good to show up at marches and rallies and protests and such - the meatspace is a very important thing.  But cyberspace is where more and more of the good stuff is happening.

So get yourself up on facebook and whatever other interwebs thingies you can think of and make your presence known.

And remember that you can set up a facebook account under any alias or pseudonym you want - all you need is an email account, which can also be anonymous.*

Participate - democracy is not a spectator sport.

Bob McDonnell (aka Gov McVaginalProbe)

Robert Hurt (US House of Representatives - VA5)

Rob Bell (VA House of Delegates - District 58)

*facebook tries to prevent this, but it can be done if you're sensible about it.

Presidents Speak

From way back when Repubs weren't just fingers in the mouth, jumpin' up and down crazy.

(hat tip = Crooks and Liars)

Ladies And Gentlemen - President Feckless

From the comments:

Mitt is funny. He's too chicken to stand up to Rush Limbaugh, and he calls Obama feckless? Mitt is an amorphous jellyfish who HAS no actual positions on anything. (I'm seriously starting to wonder if he sleeps in a bucket at night.)

Oops

Attention: Doomsday Fans

Since the Mayan calendar made no allowance for Leap Year, today's date is actually July 28, 2013 - so the end of the world is now about 7 months overdue.

Good luck gettin' refunds for your Apocalypse Cruise or whatever.

More TSA Follies

Tax Dollars Hard At Work

Nude Body Scans Made Worthless - Watch More Funny Videos

The New Jim Crow

This is gonna be a tough one for a while, I think.  I'm still not convinced Voter ID is anything more than the typical Solution-In-Search-Of-A-Problem.  Especially when Dems benefit more than Repubs when more people vote, and that the GOP is almost always the side pushing for more restrictions on who gets to vote - so there's ample cause for suspicion.

Until somebody can show me real evidence of real Voter Fraud - and not the crap about a few random idiots who're just out to fuck with the system trying to get famous - I have to assume these laws are intended to keep people away from the polls.

(hat tip = Democratic Underground)

Dubious Associations

Papa Bear says it perfectly at the end of the last clip.

(hat tip = Wonkette)


But don't forget to vote for Newt cuz he's gonna get us all the gas we want at $2.50 a gallon.