So Obamacare is now a friend of the Republican governors.
After joining the other Republican governors to deny the citizens of their state affordable healthcare through Obamacare, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has a change of heart and mind. And I am absolutely sure this change of heart had something to do with his 25 points deficit to his Democratic challenger in the upcoming election.
On Thursday, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will announce that it had granted a waiver and reached agreement with the state to provide health care coverage to 500,000 low-income residents through private insurance. The waiver will make Pennsylvania the 27th state, plus the District of Columbia, to accept federal Medicaid dollars.
Pennsylvanians who work in fast food, retail, taxi and limo driving, cleaning and housekeeping, and construction are most likely to benefit from the coverage expansion, a recent report from the health care advocacy group Families USA estimates.
News of the agreement also comes as Republican governors who are expanding their Medicaid programs up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line are registering higher poll numbers than those who do not. A recent poll has found that Gov. Tom Corbett (R-PA) trails Democratic challenger Tom Wolf by 25 percentage points. Meanwhile, 59 percent of Pennsylvania voters back Medicaid expansion, according to data from Public Policy Polling.
Gawker describes it perfectly. “If you had to imagine the platonic form of a failed ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, it would probably involve a guy in camo cargo pants and an American flag vest, waving an even bigger confederate flag, who sets his own hair on fire.”
Bring in the militia with their Uzi! We have another Cliven Bundy story and I’m sure the militias are lining up to go and help the Bundys fight the gob’ment – the crazy lunatic gob’ment!
The son of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy pulled his five children out of Clark County, Nev. schools on Thursday after getting into a disagreement with administrators over the ability to carry pocketknives at school.
The five students are the grandchildren of Cliven Bundy, a rancher who has previously engaged in armed clashes with the U.S. government over the use of federal land. The incident that sparked the removal involved Bundy’s 15-year-old granddaughter whose school refused to allow her to bring a pocketknife to school, according to television station KSNV.
Her father, Ryan Bundy, disagreed with the school’s labeling of the knife as a weapon and, per KSNV, said he has inculcated in his children the need to always carry a knife. His children affirmed his stance, saying that they utilize knives for chores but don’t wield them as weapons.
“They’re trying to make my child a criminal – and any other child a criminal – for simply having something, and that is not right,” Bundy said
After a growing public uproar surrounding her silence on the Mike Brown shooting in Ferguson Missouri, Hillary Clinton – the more than likely Democratic nominee for president in 2016 – finally spoke up on the issue, saying that as a country we must all do what we can to fix the “iniquities” in our justice system.
“We can’t ignore the inequities that persist in our justice system that undermine our most deeply held values of fairness and equality,” she said.
Clinton’s comments came at the end of a paid speech she gave in San Francisco. And she said that watching Brown’s funeral broke her heart.
She then compared the white privilege with the black reality.
“Imagine what we would feel and what we would do if white drivers were three times as likely to be searched by police during a traffic stop as black drivers, instead of the other way around,” Clinton said. “If white offenders received prison sentences 10 percent longer than black offenders for the same crimes. If a third of all white men—just look at this room and take one third—went to prison during their lifetime. Imagine that. That is the reality in the lives of so many of our fellow Americans and so many of the communities in which they live.”
NBC News is reporting that a rare and deadly brain-destroying amoeba was found in a parish water supply in Louisiana, officials said early Thursday, although there were no reported illnesses. The Naegleria fowleri bug was found in the water system serving 12,577 people in the towns of Reserve, Garyville and Mt. Airy, St. John the Baptist Parish representative Paige Falgoust said in a statement.
The water, which is now being treated with chlorine, is safe to drink but the infection can pose a risk if it enters the nasal passage. “Families can take simple steps to protect themselves from exposure to this amoeba, the most important being to avoid allowing water to go up your nose while bathing or swimming in a pool,” said Louisiana State Health Officer Jimmy Guidry.
The bug thrives in warm, untreated fresh water as well as hot springs and hot water heaters, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It has also been found in untreated swimming pools. Infections with Naegleria fowleri are rare, but they are almost always deadly. Some 132 people are known to have been infected in the more than 50 years from 1962 to 2014, but only three survived, the CDC reports.
They really needed a poll to figure this out? Anyone following the news lately can see all the special accommodations Republicans are making to ensure that women be subjected to men, in the kitchen, barefoot and unrelentingly pregnant… all the time.
A detailed report commissioned by two major Republican groups — including one backed by Karl Rove — paints a dismal picture for Republicans, concluding female voters view the party as “intolerant,” “lacking in compassion” and “stuck in the past.”
Women are “barely receptive” to Republicans’ policies, and the party does “especially poorly” with women in the Northeast and Midwest, according to an internal Crossroads GPS and American Action Network report obtained by POLITICO. It was presented to a small number of senior aides this month on Capitol Hill, according to multiple sources involved.
The report — “Republicans and Women Voters: Huge Challenges, Real Opportunities” — was the product of eight focus groups across the country and a poll of 800 registered female voters this summer. The large-scale project was a major undertaking for the GOP groups.
“The gender gap is hardly a new phenomenon, but nevertheless it’s important for conservatives to identify what policies best engage women, and our project found multiple opportunities,” said Dan Conston, a spokesman for the American Action Network. “It’s no surprise that conservatives have more work to do with women.”
What kind of country are we living in? No, seriously, I want to know. A nine year old girl just accidentally killed her shooting range instructor! I remember when kids had piano teachers instead of Uzi teachers. I think I’m going to start my own GoFundMe page where I ask for donations so I can move to Canada. I’m tired of living in a country where too many people love guns more than children. I’m living in a country where twenty little kids can be blown to bits and nothing, I mean nothing is done about it. Nothing to destroy the organization that time and time again allows this shit to happen. So we have shooting after shooting (mass and just ‘minor’) and for a week or two we talk about it and then we move on to the next story. Which of course this being the USA no doubt has something to do with guns, police brutality, or a place we want to bomb. I’m fucking tired of it.
I’m tired of hearing stories about nine year old girls at shooting ranges putting a bullet in their instructors head. It happened at a place in Arizona named Bullets and Burgers. I shit you not. I have to say that even a true cynic like myself who hates most American tradition and culture, was still shocked by that name. I wasn’t shocked that it happened in Arizona, no that did not shock me. I can only imagine what those in civilized nations think about that kind of name or concept. Hey, bring your kiddies to Bullets and Burgers where they can grab a cheeseburger, fries with your choice of sides…a pistol, a rifle, or an Uzi. This is real folks, not satire. I’m sure the founding fathers were imagining a place called Bullets and Burgers when they wrote the Second Amendment.
It’s real American life. ‘Murica baby! In places where gun violence is rare (ie every other civilized nation) when something like this happens (even though something like THIS never does) the entire country is paralyzed from it. Here in the USA we just shrug and go back to texting about our latest meal or blow job. I’m tired of it. I’m tired of seeing young lives taken or in the case of the girl, traumatized for life. This little girl killed someone. She will have to live with that forever. Her innocence is gone and who is to blame? So many people.
The NRA is to blame. They tweeted right after the incident about “7 ways children can have fun at the shooting range.” Actually it was “NRA Women” that tweeted it. Now I understand the reason so many men love big guns. It makes up for what they are lacking in the manhood department. Why women? Someone needs to explain this to me. Please. Yes this was an actual tweet right after this girl killed her instructor. The guy who runs the range is also to blame. He was on “All in with Chris Hayes” on MSNBC and as I was watching I was looking for a hint of humanity in this man, trying my hardest to understand why he allows kids to shoot guns at his range.
The humanity wasn’t there. Sure he said something about the guy that was killed being a close friend or like a brother or something but that was about it. The rest of the interview was about how much money he makes from letting kids eat burgers and shoot Uzi’s. It a big business in Nevada and Arizona, part of the gaming industry. As always it’s about money. Money and guns going together like a bullet in the brain. It just seems to fit together well in the USA.
When Hayes, who looked totally shocked and almost paralyzed by what this man was saying, asked him what changes might be made, the guy actually said this, “maybe we will have to do what they do at Disney Land, you know, when you can’t go on a ride if you aren’t ‘this tall’ (he used his hand to show height). Yeah that’s it! That’s the change that might be made. I mean shooting a high powered weapon is just like going on the “gravitron”. Ain’t this America for you and me baby!
Hayes had the look on his face that you have right now as you read this. If you hadn’t seen the interview. If an 18 year old has sex with a 16 year old we go ape shit in the country, we want the 18 year old to do life in prison. But it’s OK for a nine year old to shoot a gun. It’s not OK for a 17 year old to vote but it’s OK for a nine year old to shoot a gun. It’s not OK for a 20 year old to have a beer but it’s OK for a nine year old to shoot a fucking gun!!
This is the story in the news now, but I bet most of you don’t remember or probably haven’t heard of this one from 2011. I mean that was 457 news cycles ago. An eight year old boy killed himself when almost the exact same thing happened as his father was showing him how to shoot. A bullet in his own brain. But we didn’t talk about that story, or we did and just moved on as usual.
Which brings up the people who are the most responsible. The parents. This is child abuse or at least it would be in most other countries. You see, these people (mostly men but not always) want their kids to ‘grow up tough’ and be able to ‘defend themselves’. The father doesn’t want his son to be a ‘pussy.’ The ones with girls always wanted a boy so they have to transfer their psychological bullshit over to their poor kids. This is what it means to grow up in America these days. Some of these same people will deride their kids if they want those piano lessons or voice lessons or ballet lessons.
We have become a sick nation. Cancer ridden. We are obsessed with guns and money and violence and killing. It stinks from the head down. From a government that creates (literally and figuratively) boogeymen that need to be bombed to the cops who see an immediate threat when a black kid is walking down the street to the parents who instill this sick idea into their kids heads that if you don’t shoot a gun you aren’t ‘tough’ or a ‘real American’. The range owner that Hayes’ interviewed said “some of these nine year olds are pretty big.” It sounded as disgusting as those guys who say “Hey, she might have been 12 but she looked 18 buddy!” We detest the latter but we excuse the former. He also said the little girl “wanted to shoot a gun.” Nah, we know the truth. Her parents made her want to shoot the gun, it wastheir idea. No nine year old girl wakes up one day and says ‘I’d really love to shoot an Uzi today daddy!’ They caused the death of that instructor and the grief and guilt this little girl will feel for the rest of her life.
The NRA loves this shit. They eat it up. More kids growing up to love guns, to buy guns, to pass that along to their kids and so on and so forth. The politicians do nothing because the gun lobby contributes big money to their campaigns. The few who might want to stand up to Wayne LaPierre, know they will probably lose the next election when the NRA and supporters give millions to a pro gun challenger.
Yes this is the USA.
Bullets and burgers and guns and money and power and deaths.
After seeing the brutal killing of American journalist James Foley last week, Shirley Sotloff, mother of another captured American journalist Steven Sotloff, issued a video plea to the leader of the terrorist group asking for her son’s release.
“”Steven is a journalist who traveled to the Middle East to cover the suffering of Muslims at the hands of tyrants. Steven is a loyal and generous son, brother and grandson,” Shirley Sotloff says, adding that her son “is an honorable man and has always tried to help the weak.”
“I ask you to please release my child,” she says, “I plead with you to grant me this.”
The video below was released by the Mohave County Sheriff department, and it shows the little girl and her instructor, Charles Vacca, seconds before he was accidentally shot in the head and killed.
In the video, which does not show the instructor being shot, Vacca shows the young girl how to properly stand while shooting. He steadies her arms while she fires successfully in single-shot mode and congratulates her.
Vacca then adjusts the gun and says “Alright, full auto.” The gun recoils and drifts to the left towards the instructor as a spray of bullets is released. The video then cuts off.
“A man is dead and a little girl’s life is ruined. I say this as a father of an eleven year old girl. Who would put an uzi in the hands of a nine-year-old girl? What is wrong with these people? What is wrong with this culture? What right is advanced by doing that?”
That was Joe Scarborough of MSNBC, lamenting the recent news from a shooting range in Arizona, where a shooting instructor was shot in the head and killed while trying to teach a nine year old to fire an Uzi.
“I find it hard to believe that our Founding Fathers put together a Second Amendment to give eight-year-old children the right to fire semi-automatic weapons,” Scarborough continued. “And if you think that’s what the Constitution of the United States says, you should really go back and read the Second Amendment, and then read cases, and then read what Scalia wrote in 2008 about what the Second Amendment is and what the Second Amendment is not and what the Second Amendment protects and what the Second Amendment does not protect. There is no reading of what Scalia said in 2008, 2009 that would suggest this has anything to do with the Constitution.”
Or you are probably a right-winger who closes your eyes in disgust, cussing me out every time a new post is published. That said, over 11 million Time Warner customers had issues connecting to the internet today.
The firm said the problem affected customers in all 29 of the states in which it offered broadband connections.
The problem started in the early hours of Wednesday morning, which will have limited its effect.
Many of the company’s 11.4 million internet subscribers are now back online but others are continuing to report issues.
“Unfortunately, I do not have an estimate time of repair,” the service’s Twitter account responded to one user who asked when his home connection would be restored.
A spokesman for the company told the BBC: “At 4.30 ET this morning during our routine network maintenance, an issue with our internet backbone created disruption with our internet and on demand services. As of 0600 ET services were largely restored as updates continue to bring all customers back online.”
He added that the exact cause was still under investigation.
The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart was back to form last night when he took on the crazies at Fox News for their stupidity and their comical reporting on the tragic events in Ferguson MO over the last few weeks, when an unarmed teenager was massacred by police.
Now there were many areas where Fox’s stupidity prevailed, but Stewart zeroed in on Bill O’Reilly’s decision to break his vacation to comment on Mike Brown’s shooting, and Stewart also focused on Sean Hannity – the stupidity is abundant with this guy folks – and Hannity’s idiotic statement saying, that if he found himself in the same situation as Mike Brown, he would just raised his shirt to show the cop that he didn’t have a gun.
“You really do have no f*cking idea, do you?” Jon said. “If only Michael Brown, instead of holding his hands over his head, had reached down to his waist and lifted up his shirt to show the gun he did not actually have, well, this whole tragedy could have been avoided.”
Stewart then went on to explain the difference between Blacks and Whites in this country, and how they are treated. To illustrate, he shared that a white “The Daily Show” producer clad in “homeless elf attire” once went out in New York City to tape an interview, accompanied by a black correspondent for the show dressed in a well-tailored suit. The black correspondent was the one stopped when entering the building.
“Race is there, and it is a constant,” Stewart said. “You’re tired of hearing about it? Imagine how f*cking exhausting it is living it.”
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