World News Korner

Courtesy of FDL:

The CBO found that a public option based on Medicare would reduce the deficit by $158 billion through reduced spending and increased revenue.

The reason a public option would be so effective at reducing the deficit is that it would significantly lower premiums for millions of regular Americans and businesses. This would, in turn, reduce the amount of subsidies the government would need to spend to make insurance “affordable.” From the CBO:

"In the Congressional Budget Office’s estimation, premiums for the public plan would be between 7 percent and 8 percent lower, on average, during the 2016–2023 period than premiums for private plans offered in the exchanges—mainly because the public plan’s payment rates for providers would generally be lower than those of private plans. In addition, the public plan would be likely to have lower administrative costs than private plans. However, CBO expects that the public plan would be less inclined than private plans to use benefit management techniques (such as narrow provider networks, utilization review, and prior-approval requirements) to control spending. [...]

One rationale for adding a public plan to the exchanges is that it would help reduce premiums for some individuals, families, and employers who would buy insurance through the exchanges but would not qualify for subsidies. Premiums would be reduced both because the public plan would be one of the lowest-cost plans available in many areas and because adding a low-cost option would increase the competitive pressure on private plans,leading them to decrease their premiums."

A public option would inherently make insurance cheaper for people, and the government could use the deficit reductions to pay for increased exchange subsidies which would bring down what regular people need to pay even further.

I think with the recent debacle demonstrated by the problems with the website and the fact that the insurance companies clearly stabbed the President in the back, indicates that the government needs to take some drastic measures to draw a line in the sand and offer an affordable health care plan that would force the insurance companies to stop playing games and start competing on a more level playing field.

Of course this is EXACTLY what the Right Wing has feared all along. Which of course only makes it that much better of an idea.

Besides aren't THEY the ones always complaining about the deficit?

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Damn I wish this were a parody. But sadly it is not.

Here is how Science 4 for Christian schools is advertised on Amazon:

Explain God's ordered world to students through the study of the moon, light, area and volume, simple machines, digestion, animal defenses, trees, erosion, and simple classification of insects.

Somehow the fact that they do not recognize that electricity CAN be observed, and definitely be felt, does not fill me with confidence that they can explain a damn thing to children.

Fortunately for the children of the 21st Century there is a thing called Google.

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Typesetting Expert Doug Vogt discusses his latest legal efforts to prove that Barack Obama's birth certifcate is a forged document.

Doug also discusses a little known bill signed into law by none other than President George Washington. Will this law land many of those who have conspired to help cover up Obama's fraudulent documents? Listen to the show and find out.

To learn more about Doug's efforts or to lend support, visit vectorpub.com and obamaforgerybook.com




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Courtesy of The New Civil Rights Movement:

On abortion issues, Democrats traditionally play defense. Over the last twenty years, that strategy has seen abortion rights eroded at an alarming rate. Once the Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that states could regulate abortions to “safeguard the health of the mother”, states used that canard as a fig leaf to disguise their attempts to keep women from accessing an abortion; and the floodgates opened.

Clinics have been shuttered, but instead of fighting back, women just travel farther, often over state lines. States have demanded waiting periods and multiple visits, but instead of objecting, women take time off work, find someone to watch their kids, and stay alone in cheap motels, or sleep in their cars, because they can’t afford a room. Some states are forcing women to view sonograms and be impaled on unnecessary probes, but everyday women close their eyes and let it happen. In the states where they said “no convenient abortion drugs”, women sigh and spread their legs and endure the more dangerous surgical procedure.

In some states doctors have been given permission to lie to pregnant patients without penalty. In others, doctors are told they must lie if they think the truth about her pregnancy might make the woman decide on an abortion. And women have accepted that too; accepted every last indignity, like an abused woman who thinks there is nothing she can do to end the beatings but try not to make her abuser angry.

Finally, one lawmaker has had enough. Roll Call reported Wednesday, that Senator Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut, (left) will introduce the “Women’s Health Protection Act of 2013″, to stem what he called the “cascading wave of restrictions” states have been enacting.

Here is what the Women's Health Protection Act would accomplish:

• Require any restriction imposed by a state to be “medically necessary”.
• Preclude any state from enacting any restriction that world decrease access to abortion services.
• Make illegal any restriction requiring doctors to go against their best medical judgement. Stop states from subjecting reproductive clinics to requirements that are not imposed on other medical specialties.”
• Provide a legal benchmark for judges and justices deciding abortion cases.

And Blumenthal is not alone, Senator Tammy Baldwin, Senator Barbara Boxer, Rep. Marcia Fudge, Rep.Judy Chu, and Rep. Lois Frankel also pledged their support.

This is long past due in my opinion.

Too long have those of us on the pro-choice side allowed the debate to be defined by the other side, and too long have we been reacting to their aggressive anti-women policies instead of acting first to put in place policies that would protect women from religiously inspired lawmakers who want to keep women "in their place."

I hope that this is just the beginning and that soon we will see a whole crop of new bills introduced to protect our women from theocrats and misogynists.

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Courtesy of Progressive Populist:

“It will be like slavery,” Bashir repeated. “Given her well-established reputation as a world class idiot, it’s hardly surprising that she should choose to mention slavery in a way that is abominable to anyone who knows anything about its barbaric history.”

Bashir then discussed the barbaric history of slavery, specifically a first-person account from a man named Thomas Thistlewood, who kept a diary about the horrible treatment and discipline of the slaves he and his family owned. Bashir says, “In 1756, he records that a slave named Darby ‘catched eating kanes had him well flogged and pickled, then made Hector, another slave, s-h-i-t in his mouth.’”

Bashir concluded by saying, “When Mrs. Palin invokes slavery, she doesn’t just prove her rank ignorance. She confirms if anyone truly qualified for a dose of discipline from Thomas Thistlewood, she would be the outstanding candidate.”

In other words, Palin deserves to have her mouth s-h-i-t in.

You know usually Bashir is fairly controlled in his take downs of the Right Wing and Republican party, but I guess some people are just too disgusting for him to treat with respect.

However as others have pointed out, considering how much shit pours out of Palin's maw, she would probably not even notice a little extra added in from another source.

Well as you can imagine this has caused the Right Wing bloggers and news sites to, if you will pardon the pun, lose their shit.

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Courtesy of Think Progress:

A Detroit-area homeowner who shot in the face a 19-year-old girl at his door will be charged with murder, Wayne County prosecutors announced Thursday. The charges include murder in the second degree, which carries a term of up to life in prison; a manslaughter charge with a maximum term of 15 years in prison; and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony or attempted commission, which carries a term of two years in prison.

In the two weeks since Renisha McBride was shot dead outside the Dearborn Heights home, protests have escalated around the country to charge the homeowner, suggesting comparisons to the killing of Trayvon Martin. The shooter was white and McBride is African American. While the homeowner, now identified as Theodore P. Wafer, age 54, initially told police he discharged the gun by accident, his lawyer since told the press the shooting was “justified” and “reasonable,” invoking language from Michigan’s “Shoot First” laws that allow immunity for some self-defense shootings.

At a press conference Friday, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said her office determined that Wafer “did not act in lawful self-defense.” It is now clear that Michigan’s Stand Your Ground-like laws did not stop prosecutors from charging Wafer. Wafer may, however, still seek immunity from charges at trial.

You know the thing that kind of bothers me about this story is that it was NOT simply assumed that a man who shot an unarmed person standing outside of his house would be charged with murder.

We now live in a world where the onus seems to be to convince the police that the victim did NOT deserve to die before they will level charges. A world where killing a young man armed with an iced tea and a bag of Skittles. is not enough to send you to jail.

That is a world that we need to change.

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Courtesy of Mediaite:

The incredibly silly, fake Twitter feud included Palin disparaging the Pope’s “liberal values… over there in Vatica,” and His Holiness begging Palin for “a little more silent meditation.”

The fake Palin tweeted back, “Bring back Pope Benedict!” to which the Pope said, “You WOULD prefer the one who quit in office.” And after getting too many tweets from the fake Palin, he finally sighed, “Listening to you, I’m reconsidering my stance on birth control.”

At first I thought this was a little silly myself, but the fact that Sarah Palin's tweets are ripe for parody that it is hard to differentiate these from her real ones, and the zingers attributed to the Pope, made this more entertaining than you might expect.

Another segment of the show, a little more serious this time, dealt with the 60 Minute debacle over Benghazi.

Over all the show was pretty darn entertaining last night, and it was really helped by the appearance of MSNBC's Ezra Klein whose intellect really kept the panel on their toes.

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