World News Korner

Courtesy of Americans Against the Tea Party:

It’s not looking good for the Republican naysayers who have insisted, no matter how many times their predictions of doom and gloom for Obamacare have proven to be wrong, the law is about to fail. They are still insisting that there is no chance that the enrollment goal of 6 million can be reached by the March 31 deadline.

The latest forecast made by Charles Gaba on his blog, acasignups.net is that enrollment is on a pace to actually exceed that goal by approximately half a million. Opponents of the law have tied their last ditch hopes for the law’s failure to the assumption that the goal of 6 million could not be reached by the deadline and with that goal in sight have nothing left, they know that this was the last chance they had to get rid of the law.

Gaba has been very accurate in his earlier projections as the right cheered every misstep and minor setback each time calling it the end for the law, or as they began calling it when the roll-out of the federal website proved to be less than a resounding success, the “death spiral” of the law.

At that time, as Chris Hayes pointed out Tuesday on MSNBC’s All In, the accepted wisdom on the right was that with a website that was experiencing serious problems only the old and the sick would sign up for insurance making the whole plan an actuarial nightmare that would die of its own weight.

They have not backed off from those predictions even as the data began to show that people were signing up and that a significant number of those who were signing up are healthy young people.

Gaba’s graph includes enrollments through exchanges, Medicaid expansion and those under 26 who can now remain on their parents’ insurance. More importantly, it shows that as of Monday enrollment had passed the 5 million mark putting it in a very good position to reach the CBO goal by the end of the month.

Much to the dismay of the Republicans who have been predicting the law’s demise, according to Forbes Magazine health benefits consultants say that the number who have enrolled are enough already to make the ACA work, even though the numbers are still short of what the President had hoped for.

Not often, but occasionally, I turn on Fox News just to see if anything has changed. But it hasn't.

They still spend much of their air time slamming the Affordable Care Act and predicting doom and gloom for the Democrats in 2014.

However as time passes there is more evidence to suggest that Obamacare is a success, and that any plans to repeal or "fix it" coming from the Republicans is not well received by the American public.

Paul Ryan found that out the hard way at a recent town hall:

But not all of Ryan’s constituents agree with his position. On Wednesday, the Republican congressman was confronted by one such voter at a town hall in southeast Wisconsin.

“ACA subsidies are a good thing,” Michael Martincic, 64, of Oak Creek told Ryan, criticizing his Party’s repeated attempts to get rid of the health reform law.

Martincic works as a roofer and is currently paying $700 for his health insurance through his union. However, upon browsing Healthcare.gov — “it was so easy to get on the site; the whole thing only took 15 minutes,” Martincic told ThinkProgress afterward — he found that he qualified for subsidies and could be paying as little as $200 for coverage.

As more and more of these stories come out, and Democrats should be actively soliciting them, the harder it will be for Republicans to campaign on the "failure" of the law.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but we need to get our act together as a party, and we need to get it together NOW.

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Courtesy of Slate:

Most of the coverage of the case has focused on Hobby Lobby's objection to the contraception itself and how, if the business prevails, its employees will have to pay out of pocket for things like birth control pills or IUDs. But, as Tara Culp-Ressler at ThinkProgress explained on Wednesday, Hobby Lobby and their co-plaintiff, Conestoga Wood Specialties, are also objecting to insurance plans covering "related education and counseling" for contraception. In other words, these for-profit businesses aren't just asking their female employees to pay for their own contraception, even though they are already paying for their own contraception by paying for their insurance coverage. These companies want to elbow their way into doctor's offices and call the shots on what doctors can and cannot say to Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood employees.

"Essentially, if Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood are successful, they’ll win the right to refuse to extend coverage for doctor’s visits that include discussion about certain forms of contraception, like IUDs or the morning after pill," Culp-Ressler writes. That would probably be something insurance companies could deal with if there was such thing as a specialized doctor's appointment to only discuss contraception. In the real world, however, most women receive their contraception counseling at general gynecological appointments or annual checkups. You go in, get your blood taken, get a Pap smear, get your breasts squeezed, and then your doctor asks what you use for contraception, and you walk out with a prescription in hand. If Hobby Lobby has its way, by merely acknowledging the birth control pill during that appointment, your doctor would render your entire visit ineligible for coverage by your health care plan.

"This isn't something that generally is billed separately from a health care visit," Adam Sonfield, a senior public policy associate for the Guttmacher Institute, explained to me over the phone. "As far as we can tell, the only way to implement this objection would be to say that if your visit is going to be reimbursed by your health care plan, then your doctor can't talk to you about certain topics your employer objects to."

It's unclear if the plaintiffs just haven't considered how unworkable their ask is, or if marginalizing contraception consultation by making it too fraught to be discussed during a standard doctor's appointment is the intention here.

No I think that was DEFINITELY the intention here.

These Fundamentalists believe that their faith gives them the responsibility to enforce their version of morality wherever they see fit.

So if this ruling goes in Hobby Lobby's favor then even a discussion with your doctor about contraception during a visit would mean you could not bill it to your company's insurance policy.

To be clear that means that an employer could, in some ways, dictate what takes place in an employee's bedroom. Married or not.

I cannot help but think this is the employer's version of purity balls.

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In fact both men used the church to gain power, and Stalin even studied for the priesthood.

They used religion to gain power, and once they had that power they stripped the church of influence, in order to protect that power.

Neither were driven by Atheism, they were driven by megalomania.

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Now THAT'S roughing it! Is that chair even padded?

Later they will throw some images on the green screen that make it look like Palin is in some wooded area, or out on the water, or wrestling bears, you know things the "Queen of the Outdoors" might do.

Essentially the same technique they used during her Fox News segments to make it look like she was still in Alaska.

Here are a few more photos:


Apparently Bristol already applied the spackle.

The pics came from the Facebook page for "Girls with Guns Clothing." And here is what they had to say about their on the set experiences:

Can we get a like and share if you are a Sarah Palin fan! We are!! This photo is from Monday's filming of Amazing America with Sarah Palin. GWG outfitted the Governor in our swag for all of the intros! What an honor!

Working on set with the Governor. She is a very talented speaker!

Oh yeah, SO talented.

These young ladies better just hope that she does not curse their business the way she curses everything else she touches.

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Well at least I got paid right? I mean that's the important thing.

Courtesy of HuffPo:

Rocker Ted Nugent just made big bucks to not show up somewhere.

The town of Longview, Texas paid Nugent $16,000 to not appear at the town's Fourth of July Festival. According to KLTV, a city spokesman said Nugent was "not the right feel for this kind of community event."

The city had reached a verbal agreement with Nugent, scheduling the rocker as the headliner who would play inside the Maude Cobb Convention and Activity Center during the town's Independence Day celebration. To break that agreement, the town paid Nugent half of his guaranteed performance fee of $32,000 from Maude Cobb's annual budget.

The move comes amid criticism of comments Nugent made about President Barack Obama in January 2014, calling him a "subhuman mongrel." Nugent, who campaigned with Texas Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott amid the controversy, apologized for those comments in February.

Wow! Now THAT is a level of "You are not welcome here" that is usually reserved for ex-dictators and mass murderers.

And this is in TEXAS!

One has to wonder how long it will take before Sarah Palin is getting paid to "stay the fuck away from here?"

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Courtesy of Raw Story:

The leader of a Ku Klux Klan group in Virginia says the notoriously racist “Hooded Order” is really just a non-violent Christian organization.

“We don’t hate people because of their race. I mean, we’re a Christian organization,” Frank Ancona, an Imperial Wizard of the Traditional American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, told WWBT on Thursday.

He insisted that the KKK had been unfairly maligned for its acts of violence against black people in the United States.

“Because of the acts of a few rogue Klansmen our Klansmen are supposed to be murderers and want to lynch black people, and we are supposed to be terrorists, and that is a complete falsehood.”

Ancona’s KKK group has been tossing racist fliers onto residents lawns in Chesterfield County in the middle of the night. The fliers include a phone number, an email address and information about two websites that claim the KKK is a non-violent group that is not the “enem[y] of the colored and mongrel races.”

Earlier this month, Ancona told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that “[t]he thing that really gets me is that [people are] saying we’re teaching our children to hate people just because of their race, creed and color, and that’s a complete lie and falsehood.”

That's right and the Nazis never killed any Jews, the Mormons never murdered an innocent group of immigrants during the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and the settlers never slaughtered any Native Americans. It was all a huge misunderstanding.

Ancona is right about one thing though, the Klan was made up entirely of white, Anglo Saxon, Christian citizens.

After all, without religion how can true evil really survive?

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Courtesy of Salon:

An Alaska Republican is pushing to put free pregnancy tests in bars in order to discourage pregnant people from drinking, but thinks that providing no-cost birth control in the same manner is “social engineering.”

In an interview with the Anchorage Daily News, state Sen. Pete Kelly explained his dream of putting pregnancy tests in public restrooms thusly: “So if you’re drinking — if you’re out at the big birthday celebration and you’re kind of like, ‘Gee, I wonder if I …,’ You can just go in the bathroom and there should be a plastic, Plexiglas bowl in there [filled with free pregnancy tests.]”

While I’m not entirely convinced that clubgoers will feel inclined to piss on a stick in the middle of a “big birthday celebration,” I’m definitely in favor of making pregnancy tests free and widely available in places like public restrooms. (A savvy Alaskan would be well served to stash a few of the free tests to have on hand at more convenient, less public moments.)

But when asked about another sensible reproductive health proposal — making birth control free and widely available — Kelly balked.

“No, because the thinking is a little opposite. This assumes that if you know, you’ll act responsibly. Birth control is for people who don’t necessarily want to act responsibly,” he explained. “That’s — I’m not going to tell them what to do, or help them do it, that’s their business. But if we have a pregnancy test, because someone just doesn’t know. That’s probably a way we can help them.”

When the person interviewing Kelly suggested that using birth control may also be responsible, Kelly replied, “Maybe, maybe not. That’s a level of social engineering that we don’t want to get into. All we want to do is make sure that people are informed and they’ll make the right decision.”

So it IS responsible to pee on a stick before drinking in a bar to determine whether or not you are pregnant first, but NOT responsible to use birth control to keep that from happening in the first place?

Okay that's going to kill some brain cells.

Sometimes there is so much stupid up here that I am afraid to leave my house

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Well that sure ain't Sarah Palin.

Courtesy of The Sportsman Channel:

Sportsman Channel, the leader in outdoor television for American sportsmen and women, announced that accomplished comedian and dramatic actor, Mark Christopher Lawrence is co-hosting Amazing America with Sarah Palin, the weekly series that will premiere April 3 at 8 p.m. ET.

Lawrence, a native of Compton, Calif., attended The University of Southern California and studied theatre. Currently, a San Diego resident, Lawrence starred on Chuck for five seasons and has been seen as a guest star on many popular television shows throughout the years such as: Seinfeld, Murphy Brown, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Dharma & Greg and My Name is Earl.

Lawrence is the co-host of seven episodes of Amazing America with Sarah Palin and experiences heart-warming and unique stories that exemplify the American dream. Audiences will experience the life of a professional taxidermist and successful businessmen who are passionate for America and philanthropy – not to mention pastors racing cars and a father and son team of custom knives makers.

“This journey across America is truly rewarding,” offered Lawrence. “Every person we talked with was very giving of their time and happy to share their amazing experiences of the hard work and passion for adventure and the outdoors. The diversity of the stories will inspire viewers and bring laughter and joy.”

So does this mean that Sarah Palin is losing a job to an African American person, again?

First it was the Miss Alaska crown that went to the lovely Maryline Blackburn in 1984.

Then she, and the old guy she was running with, lost the 2008 presidential election to that Barack Obama guy.

And now this.

However I have to agree that this is a relatively smart move on the behalf of the Sportsman Channel.

I mean how long before Palin starts leaving early to read wedding magazines and watch daytime TV like she did while Governor of Alaska?

Pretty soon they will have no idea where she is at any given time, her secretary (Bristol) will keep making excuses for why she missed appointments, and when she does show up she will not know what the segment is about, her wig will be on crooked, and she won't know her lines.

My only question is what happens when the rednecks, who think the video of them jumping their four wheeler over six barbecues will be introduced on the show by that purty Sarah Palin gal, find out that instead it's introduced by some darky?

Somehow I don't see this show hanging on to the show's tiny demographic for very long at all, especially once the paint chip eaters find the pair of pliers they use to turn off their parent's old Zenith TV.

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Okay this is just for my fellow progressive Alaskans, so the rest of you can ignore it if you want.

Look I know that some of you may have problems with Mark.

I know that some of you are disappointed that he has not been a more vocal advocate for the President here in Alaska, and are irritated that he has even spoken out against some of his policies in the past, and hasn't done as much for the state as you might have hoped.

I understand all of that. I just don't give a shit!

We are in the middle of a very important struggle for the future of this nation, and Mark is our ONLY Democrat in Washington that will help move our policies forward.

I don't care if you hold your nose, curse his name under your breath, or have to get shit faced to do it, you HAVE to vote for Begich in this next election.

You have to!

If you don't, we might very well end up with Joe Miller or Dan Sullivan representing Alaska, and that simply cannot be allowed to happen! That would almost be as fucked up as actually electing Sarah Palin.

So suck it up Alaska. Mark Begich may not be perfect, but damn it he is by far the best we have right now.

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"To not believe in God is to know that it falls to us to make the world a better place."

Just think about that for a minute.

Imagine living in a world where people did not hate each other based on religious differences, everybody recognized that new and dangerous weather patterns were the result of man made pollutants and NOT gay marriage, and where each day was treasured as a precious moment in a finite existence and not simply time spent attempting to earn acceptance into some glorious afterlife.

Just imagine.

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