Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Monday, December 16, 2013
A Tale of Two Governors
Now that the hysterical hyperventilation over the Affordable Care Act has passed, we are starting to hear about the more positive ways in which the law is being implemented. It's very interesting to note how two red states, Nevada and Kentucky, have chosen to tackle the rollout.
As noted in this piece, Governor Sandoval (R-Nevada), is all in.
Sandoval is the only Republican governor whose state is both running its own health insurance exchange this year and expanding its Medicaid program under the health law. He’s arguably doing more to put the Democrats’ signature law into place than any other Republican.
Why?
“I opposed the Affordable Care Act from its inception,” he wrote in an email. But he’s a former federal judge and in his view, once the Supreme Court upheld the legislation, “the Affordable Care Act became the law of the land.”
Apparently, his constituents appreciate his adult behavior.
Even after sticking his neck out on Obamacare — which few others in his party would consider amid fear of a conservative backlash — Sandoval is overwhelmingly popular in Nevada. State lawmakers backed his Obamacare approach on a bipartisan basis, and he’s cruising toward reelection next year with no formidable opponent in sight.
Huh. So, moderating and actually accomplishing the business of government works. So does "stamping Obamacare to his forehead." Whoda thunk it? Well, considering the ACA was a Republican idea in the first place...
Governor Steve Beshear, a Democrat in the (not much longer now) red state of Kentucky has also fully embraced the ACA.
The way Beshear tells it, “this” is enrolling 69,000 Kentuckians in newly available health coverage programs, a number that has grown steadily and that the Democrat expects to “surge” in the final weeks of the year. As the only governor of a Southern state who has both set up a state insurance exchange and green-lighted an expansion of the Medicaid program, Beshear represents a painfully rare bright spot in the landscape of Obamacare implementation. The state exchange, dubbed Kynect, has been a model of smooth enrollment compared to the federal government’s version, and has absorbed 550,000 web visitors and 180,000 phone inquiries so far.
Hoo boy...so much for the boiling pit of sewage. Governor Beshear has even been calling out folks like Mitch McConnell on all the lying over the ACA.
“I have a U.S. senator who keeps saying Kentuckians don’t want this,” Beshear said. “Well, the facts don’t prove that out. There’s about 550,000 on our website right now who want it — and some 65,000 to 69,000 that have signed up. So Kentuckians do want it.”
"I want to publicly invite our entire federal delegation to come back to Kentucky as [Democratic Rep.] John Yarmuth does all the time and come over to our center, our nerve center where we’re running this program and see for yourself what is going on,” said Beshear. “When you see that, I think you’ll quit saying this will not work and Kentuckians don’t want it.”
Governor Beshear also notes that the issue of the ACA is going to come back and haunt McConnell in his already tough reelection battle next year. I agree. In fact, I'm going to predict right now that McConnell loses that race because the far right in Kentucky is pissed off at him and won't turn out. Heck, he might not even make it out of the primary. Alison Lundergan Grimes is a very popular, moderate Democrat currently serving as Secretary of State for Kentucky. She will pull GOP voters to her side, given the Kentuckian embrace of the ACA.
Republican governors and Democrats in southern red states embracing the Affordable Care Act? All this bipartisanship makes me warm and fuzzy. I wonder how it makes the Tea Party feel these days...:)
As noted in this piece, Governor Sandoval (R-Nevada), is all in.
Sandoval is the only Republican governor whose state is both running its own health insurance exchange this year and expanding its Medicaid program under the health law. He’s arguably doing more to put the Democrats’ signature law into place than any other Republican.
Why?
“I opposed the Affordable Care Act from its inception,” he wrote in an email. But he’s a former federal judge and in his view, once the Supreme Court upheld the legislation, “the Affordable Care Act became the law of the land.”
Apparently, his constituents appreciate his adult behavior.
Even after sticking his neck out on Obamacare — which few others in his party would consider amid fear of a conservative backlash — Sandoval is overwhelmingly popular in Nevada. State lawmakers backed his Obamacare approach on a bipartisan basis, and he’s cruising toward reelection next year with no formidable opponent in sight.
Huh. So, moderating and actually accomplishing the business of government works. So does "stamping Obamacare to his forehead." Whoda thunk it? Well, considering the ACA was a Republican idea in the first place...
Governor Steve Beshear, a Democrat in the (not much longer now) red state of Kentucky has also fully embraced the ACA.
The way Beshear tells it, “this” is enrolling 69,000 Kentuckians in newly available health coverage programs, a number that has grown steadily and that the Democrat expects to “surge” in the final weeks of the year. As the only governor of a Southern state who has both set up a state insurance exchange and green-lighted an expansion of the Medicaid program, Beshear represents a painfully rare bright spot in the landscape of Obamacare implementation. The state exchange, dubbed Kynect, has been a model of smooth enrollment compared to the federal government’s version, and has absorbed 550,000 web visitors and 180,000 phone inquiries so far.
Hoo boy...so much for the boiling pit of sewage. Governor Beshear has even been calling out folks like Mitch McConnell on all the lying over the ACA.
“I have a U.S. senator who keeps saying Kentuckians don’t want this,” Beshear said. “Well, the facts don’t prove that out. There’s about 550,000 on our website right now who want it — and some 65,000 to 69,000 that have signed up. So Kentuckians do want it.”
"I want to publicly invite our entire federal delegation to come back to Kentucky as [Democratic Rep.] John Yarmuth does all the time and come over to our center, our nerve center where we’re running this program and see for yourself what is going on,” said Beshear. “When you see that, I think you’ll quit saying this will not work and Kentuckians don’t want it.”
Governor Beshear also notes that the issue of the ACA is going to come back and haunt McConnell in his already tough reelection battle next year. I agree. In fact, I'm going to predict right now that McConnell loses that race because the far right in Kentucky is pissed off at him and won't turn out. Heck, he might not even make it out of the primary. Alison Lundergan Grimes is a very popular, moderate Democrat currently serving as Secretary of State for Kentucky. She will pull GOP voters to her side, given the Kentuckian embrace of the ACA.
Republican governors and Democrats in southern red states embracing the Affordable Care Act? All this bipartisanship makes me warm and fuzzy. I wonder how it makes the Tea Party feel these days...:)
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Good Words
“We have become used to the suffering of others. Has any one of us wept for these persons who were on the boat? For the young mothers carrying their babies? For these men who were looking for a means of supporting their families? We are a society which has forgotten how to weep, how to experience compassion… the church is with you in the search for a more dignified life for you and your families.”
~Pope Francis, taking up the plight of immigrants and the poor, July 2013
Saturday, December 14, 2013
It's Cool Now
A year after the Sandy Hook massacre and we haven't progressed at all. In fact, we've gone backwards in some ways. School shootings happen about once a month now and I have to wonder just how much of this is the media's fault. Every time there is a shooting, it's instantaneous, wall to wall coverage as we saw yesterday with yet another shooting in Colorado. If there was less coverage, or none at all, would there be less school shootings?
Somewhere along the way in these last two decades, it became alright to walk into a school with a gun and start shooting. Heck, it's cool, right? Because it's on TV and everyone gets excited about it. For those mentally ill individuals, this is their chance to have people finally attention to them. And they think it's socially acceptable because of the regularity with which it happens. Worse, people seem to be OK with it and that is just terribly disturbing. The only good thing (if you can call it good) that has come out of Newtown is the gun community has shown what truly ugly people they are. Their response to this tragedy was so profoundly disgusting that, in many ways, they are going to deeply regret their words and actions. As I have stated previously, it's only a matter of time.
The Christian Science Monitor has a series of articles up that are very worthwhile reading. In addition to political analysis, they offer some great perspectives on where we are culturally that need attention. Here's an example...
• One in three people in the US knows someone who has been shot.
• On average, 32 Americans are murdered with guns every day, and 140 are treated for a gun assault in an emergency room.
• Every day on average, 51 people kill themselves with a firearm, and 45 people are shot or killed in an accident with a gun.
• The US firearm homicide rate is 20 times higher than the combined rates of 22 countries that are our peers in wealth and population.
• Although guns can and have been used successfully in self-defense in the home, a gun in the home is 22 times more likely to be used to injure or kill in a domestic homicide, suicide, or unintentional shooting than to be used in self-defense.
For our country as great as ours, this is simply piss poor. And it obviously goes way beyond guns. Why are we such violent culture? It's not simply one reason and I think once we get a handle on the complexities of this answer, we can define the various reasons and implement solutions.
I think we should start with why it's cool now to shoot up schools.
Somewhere along the way in these last two decades, it became alright to walk into a school with a gun and start shooting. Heck, it's cool, right? Because it's on TV and everyone gets excited about it. For those mentally ill individuals, this is their chance to have people finally attention to them. And they think it's socially acceptable because of the regularity with which it happens. Worse, people seem to be OK with it and that is just terribly disturbing. The only good thing (if you can call it good) that has come out of Newtown is the gun community has shown what truly ugly people they are. Their response to this tragedy was so profoundly disgusting that, in many ways, they are going to deeply regret their words and actions. As I have stated previously, it's only a matter of time.
The Christian Science Monitor has a series of articles up that are very worthwhile reading. In addition to political analysis, they offer some great perspectives on where we are culturally that need attention. Here's an example...
• One in three people in the US knows someone who has been shot.
• On average, 32 Americans are murdered with guns every day, and 140 are treated for a gun assault in an emergency room.
• Every day on average, 51 people kill themselves with a firearm, and 45 people are shot or killed in an accident with a gun.
• The US firearm homicide rate is 20 times higher than the combined rates of 22 countries that are our peers in wealth and population.
• Although guns can and have been used successfully in self-defense in the home, a gun in the home is 22 times more likely to be used to injure or kill in a domestic homicide, suicide, or unintentional shooting than to be used in self-defense.
For our country as great as ours, this is simply piss poor. And it obviously goes way beyond guns. Why are we such violent culture? It's not simply one reason and I think once we get a handle on the complexities of this answer, we can define the various reasons and implement solutions.
I think we should start with why it's cool now to shoot up schools.
Who is John Galt?
Or, in this case, Jon Gault?
Well, he is a man who is very grateful for the Affordable Care Act.
Some nights, when Jon Gault felt his worst, he wondered if he would live long enough to see his 17-year-old son go to college or to walk his daughter, now 8, down the aisle.
Although many have reported problems with the federal HealthCare.gov site, Gault says Washington’s site was surprisingly easy to navigate and he was quickly approved. The price came as a pleasant surprise also. Thanks to federal subsidies, Gault will not have to pay for his coverage.
“I went from being denied health insurance several years ago to actually having it now,” Gault says.
“It’s kind of nice.”Many of his Republican friends have dismissed his newfound hope, and he has stopped trying to argue with them. They are not seeing the bigger picture, he says. It’s not about how much it will cost; it’s about those it will help. Everyone will benefit at least indirectly, because people they love and care about will benefit.
As for him, he says he no longer has to choose between providing for his family or taking care of himself.
Oh, the sweet, sweet irony!
Well, he is a man who is very grateful for the Affordable Care Act.
Some nights, when Jon Gault felt his worst, he wondered if he would live long enough to see his 17-year-old son go to college or to walk his daughter, now 8, down the aisle.
Although many have reported problems with the federal HealthCare.gov site, Gault says Washington’s site was surprisingly easy to navigate and he was quickly approved. The price came as a pleasant surprise also. Thanks to federal subsidies, Gault will not have to pay for his coverage.
“I went from being denied health insurance several years ago to actually having it now,” Gault says.
“It’s kind of nice.”Many of his Republican friends have dismissed his newfound hope, and he has stopped trying to argue with them. They are not seeing the bigger picture, he says. It’s not about how much it will cost; it’s about those it will help. Everyone will benefit at least indirectly, because people they love and care about will benefit.
As for him, he says he no longer has to choose between providing for his family or taking care of himself.
Oh, the sweet, sweet irony!
Friday, December 13, 2013
Growing Up
It appears as though some Republicans are finally growing up. Check out what Paul Ryan had to say recently.
As a conservative, I deal with the situation as it exists. I deal with the way things are, not necessarily the way I want them to be. I’ve passed three budgets in a row that reflect my priorities and my principles and everything I wanted to accomplish. We’re in divided government. I realize I’m not going to get that.
Ryan took to the House floor yesterday and noted that "elections have consequences." Wow! There goes his Obama-hatin' card!!
John Boehner has also chimed in, wondering just exactly the Tea Party is trying to accomplish. "Are you KIDDING me?" was his question and the response is quite simple.
When your throw your lot in with adolescents, you get temper tantrums.
As a conservative, I deal with the situation as it exists. I deal with the way things are, not necessarily the way I want them to be. I’ve passed three budgets in a row that reflect my priorities and my principles and everything I wanted to accomplish. We’re in divided government. I realize I’m not going to get that.
Ryan took to the House floor yesterday and noted that "elections have consequences." Wow! There goes his Obama-hatin' card!!
John Boehner has also chimed in, wondering just exactly the Tea Party is trying to accomplish. "Are you KIDDING me?" was his question and the response is quite simple.
When your throw your lot in with adolescents, you get temper tantrums.
Good Words
“In ideologies there is not Jesus: in his tenderness, his love, his meekness. And ideologies are rigid, always. Of every sign: rigid. And when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the door with many requirements. The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances of the Church of the people. But it is a serious illness, this of ideological Christians. It is an illness, but it is not new, eh?”
~Pope Francis, (October 2013)
Hmm...sounds most familiar...
Hmm...sounds most familiar...
Thursday, December 12, 2013
The Adolescent
I've written previously about the modern day conservative as adolescent but this last week has certainly crystallized this theory and so a new tag is born, "The Adolescent." Once again, I was defriended by a conservative on Facebook. Reverend Jim said sayonara to Markadelphia after long exchanges over health care and race issues. Apparently, he and his wife (my first girlfriend) have had trouble signing up for health insurance on the federal exchange and blame me for it. They were in the individual market and were absolutely apoplectic about what the federal government was "making" them do.
Of course, the act of defriending itself is adolescent and, oddly, senior citizen-y (which is sort of the same thing when you think about it). Doesn't Reverend Jim know that you can delete someone from your news feed still remain friends? Man, working the computer machine is tough! Ah well, at least the bubble's integrity can remain intact. Thank goodness! Odder still, its that they tagged me in their health care rants, calling me a "box of turds" and "an idiot" for supporting the president and a political class that "lords over them, forcing them to live in servitude." The more I responded with the facts, the worse they got. Granted, the missus, who is still friends me with me on FB, has infinite leeway with me because she was the first love of my life but did they honestly want me to not respond? Again, adolescent:)
There were so many irrational and hysterical comments in those threads that it was hard for me to keep track but the one thing that struck me about all of them was how decidedly un-Christian they were. They were so self absorbed with their frustration with the web site, did they ever stop to think about these people? They are bitching about a buggy web site and the people in this link had nothing except life threatening illnesses. When Reverend Jim and the missus finally found out that they qualified for subsidies and would actually save money, suddenly they were happy. My oh my, how the emotions swing with teenagers! All talk of people "spooning off of the American taxpayer" went out the window as they finally happily got signed up.
This selfishness, aside from being un-Christian, is yet another strong indicator of a brain and higher reasoning not fully developed-just like an adolescent). They don't think rationally at all. Reverend Jim bemoans liberals that take offense at everything yet thinks conservatives that take offense at everything are justified. He vilifies our self esteem culture and the fairness for all attitude that goes along with it yet rips me when I say conservatives are far worse than liberals and...(not shockingly) gets massively offended himself. Again, the world revolves around them and only them.
It reminds me a great deal of the conversations I've had over the years with teenagers who take great umbrage with the fact that our society has rules and sometimes they aren't fair. As adults, one would think conservatives would have learned this by now but, as I have stated previously, something must have happened to them in their childhood to have so much trouble with authority. Because these sorts of conversations, with both adolescents and the modern day conservative, invariable end with an outburst followed by a stomp down the hallway, a door slam, and yelling about how I "think I'm so smart" and I'm always "talking down to them" like they are a child.
Well, perhaps they should stop acting like one:)
Of course, the act of defriending itself is adolescent and, oddly, senior citizen-y (which is sort of the same thing when you think about it). Doesn't Reverend Jim know that you can delete someone from your news feed still remain friends? Man, working the computer machine is tough! Ah well, at least the bubble's integrity can remain intact. Thank goodness! Odder still, its that they tagged me in their health care rants, calling me a "box of turds" and "an idiot" for supporting the president and a political class that "lords over them, forcing them to live in servitude." The more I responded with the facts, the worse they got. Granted, the missus, who is still friends me with me on FB, has infinite leeway with me because she was the first love of my life but did they honestly want me to not respond? Again, adolescent:)
There were so many irrational and hysterical comments in those threads that it was hard for me to keep track but the one thing that struck me about all of them was how decidedly un-Christian they were. They were so self absorbed with their frustration with the web site, did they ever stop to think about these people? They are bitching about a buggy web site and the people in this link had nothing except life threatening illnesses. When Reverend Jim and the missus finally found out that they qualified for subsidies and would actually save money, suddenly they were happy. My oh my, how the emotions swing with teenagers! All talk of people "spooning off of the American taxpayer" went out the window as they finally happily got signed up.
This selfishness, aside from being un-Christian, is yet another strong indicator of a brain and higher reasoning not fully developed-just like an adolescent). They don't think rationally at all. Reverend Jim bemoans liberals that take offense at everything yet thinks conservatives that take offense at everything are justified. He vilifies our self esteem culture and the fairness for all attitude that goes along with it yet rips me when I say conservatives are far worse than liberals and...(not shockingly) gets massively offended himself. Again, the world revolves around them and only them.
It reminds me a great deal of the conversations I've had over the years with teenagers who take great umbrage with the fact that our society has rules and sometimes they aren't fair. As adults, one would think conservatives would have learned this by now but, as I have stated previously, something must have happened to them in their childhood to have so much trouble with authority. Because these sorts of conversations, with both adolescents and the modern day conservative, invariable end with an outburst followed by a stomp down the hallway, a door slam, and yelling about how I "think I'm so smart" and I'm always "talking down to them" like they are a child.
Well, perhaps they should stop acting like one:)
Time's Man of the Year: "Fake" Christian
Well, Time magazine went and done did it. They named Pope Francis the Man of the Year. As the image below aptly notes, Republican Jesus believers don't much like the new pontiff and his "socialist" ways (see: helping the poor, healing the sick, championing equality aka what Jesus actually taught) so this has got to be a real ass chap for them. The world is moving away from the hatred, anger and fear.
Oh well.
Oh well.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Great News!
Two great things have happened in the last 24 hours. We have thankfully returned to a core tenet of Glass Steagal and enacted the so called Volcker Rule which prohibits banks from using customer money to trade for their own gain. I can't understate how integral this is to bringing stability to our economy and, by extension, the world economy.
And we have a deal that looks like it will pass by houses of Congress and fund the government through 2015. Republicans saw what happened when the shut down the government recently and realized it was time to put the short wave radio crowd back in the garage. They were facing disaster in the 2014 elections and now, with the help of the poor rollout of the ACA, they are doing much better. While there will likely be some return to idiocy, electorally speaking, over the next few months, GOP leaders can see a path to holding ground in the House and maybe picking up some seats in the Senate. Of course, things look pretty bad for them in 2016 as 24 Republicans look to hold on to their seats while only 10 Democrats do the same. But who knows what could happen in 3 years?
So, great times, folks in terms of our economic path. It's going to be interesting to see how our economy does now that both of these issues are out of the way. GDP is up, unemployment is down, and consumer confidence, heading into the final stretch of the holiday season, is at a five month high.
Great News!
And we have a deal that looks like it will pass by houses of Congress and fund the government through 2015. Republicans saw what happened when the shut down the government recently and realized it was time to put the short wave radio crowd back in the garage. They were facing disaster in the 2014 elections and now, with the help of the poor rollout of the ACA, they are doing much better. While there will likely be some return to idiocy, electorally speaking, over the next few months, GOP leaders can see a path to holding ground in the House and maybe picking up some seats in the Senate. Of course, things look pretty bad for them in 2016 as 24 Republicans look to hold on to their seats while only 10 Democrats do the same. But who knows what could happen in 3 years?
So, great times, folks in terms of our economic path. It's going to be interesting to see how our economy does now that both of these issues are out of the way. GDP is up, unemployment is down, and consumer confidence, heading into the final stretch of the holiday season, is at a five month high.
Great News!
Responsible Gun Owners?
3-Year-Old Fatally Shot Near Broad Ripple Park After Gun Fell Off Counter
A neighbor to the family said "I've known they had guns; they've carried them in public on their side, they've got permits for them and I just thought they always were a little bit more responsible than that."
I guess not.
A neighbor to the family said "I've known they had guns; they've carried them in public on their side, they've got permits for them and I just thought they always were a little bit more responsible than that."
I guess not.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Spy vs. Spy: Elf vs. Orc
Not content with monitoring domestic phone calls, email, Internet searches, and porn habits, during the Bush administration the NSA decided to spy on people playing World of Warcraft. The New York Times reports the latest embarrassment from the Edward Snowden document dump:
There were so many NSA and GCHQ (British SIGINT) guys doing this that they had to develop protocols to avoid spying on each other.
This is another sign of the excessive amount of time and money we are wasting on supposed security threats. The bosses at the NSA are either completely stupid or ridiculously naive if they can't see that their employees were just looking for an excuse to play games at work.
No wonder Edward Snowden could just waltz in and steal them blind.
Not limiting their activities to the earthly realm, American and British spies have infiltrated the fantasy worlds of World of Warcraft and Second Life, conducting surveillance and scooping up data in the online games played by millions of people across the globe, according to newly disclosed classified documents.
Fearing that terrorist or criminal networks could use the games to communicate secretly, move money or plot attacks, the documents show, intelligence operatives have entered terrain populated by digital avatars that include elves, gnomes and supermodels.This is silly. Anyone who plays these games knows that there's no privacy. The companies running them are constantly on the watch for suspicious activity, because of rampant theft of game accounts, credit cards and in-game items and virtual currency. The companies log all communications, and monitor all activities to determine the best way to make money off their players.
There were so many NSA and GCHQ (British SIGINT) guys doing this that they had to develop protocols to avoid spying on each other.
This is another sign of the excessive amount of time and money we are wasting on supposed security threats. The bosses at the NSA are either completely stupid or ridiculously naive if they can't see that their employees were just looking for an excuse to play games at work.
No wonder Edward Snowden could just waltz in and steal them blind.
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