Saturday, June 30, 2012

Florida Insurers To Rebate $113 Million To Policyholders

Florida Insurers To Rebate $113 Million To Policyholders: Thanks to the health care law, Floridians who obtained health insurance without employer assistance will receive rebates between $143 and $949 in August, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. The law requires insurers to spend 80 percent of their premiums on medical costs, and refund the difference to policyholders if they fail to meet the [...]/p

12.8 Million Receive Insurance Rebates As A Result Of Obamacare

12.8 Million Receive Insurance Rebates As A Result Of Obamacare: 12.8 million Americans will receive $1.1 billion in rebates from insurers that have not met minimum spending guidelines in Obamacare, the administration announced Thursday morning. The Affordable Care Act requires insurers to spend 80 to 85 percent of premium dollars on health care services or issue rebates to policy holders. The average rebate is valued [...]/p

Corporate Profits at All-Time High; Wages at All-Time Low: Can We Call it Class War Yet? | | AlterNet

Corporate Profits at All-Time High; Wages at All-Time Low: Can We Call it Class War Yet? | | AlterNet
"The middle class is being hollowed out; increasingly, there are the super-super-rich, and there are the rest of us."

Friday, June 29, 2012

Conservative Southern Values Revived: How a Brutal Strain of American Aristocrats Have Come to Rule America | Visions | AlterNet

Conservative Southern Values Revived: How a Brutal Strain of American Aristocrats Have Come to Rule America | Visions | AlterNet
"The rich are different now because the elites who spent four centuries sucking the South dry and turning it into an economic and political backwater have now vanquished the more forward-thinking, democratic Northern elites. Their attitudes towards freedom, authority, community, government, and the social contract aren't just confined to the country clubs of the Gulf Coast; they can now be found on the ground from Hollywood and Silicon Valley to Wall Street. And because of that quiet coup, the entire US is now turning into the global equivalent of a Deep South state."

Adults only, please: Five things the Romney campaign believes are presidential

Adults only, please: Five things the Romney campaign believes are presidential
"Staking your entire presidential campaign on repealing the very same health care reform policy that you signed into law when governor."

Mississippi Tea Party Chairman Calls For Open Rebellion Against Federal Government After Obamacare Ruling

Mississippi Tea Party Chairman Calls For Open Rebellion Against Federal Government After Obamacare Ruling: Of all the right-wing meltdowns following yesterday’s decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act, this statement put out by the chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party may take the cake: When a gang of criminals subvert legitimate government offices and seize all power to themselves without the [...]/p

New Tea Party Theory: Kindergarten Leads To Higher Crime Rates

New Tea Party Theory: Kindergarten Leads To Higher Crime Rates
"Please, Rep. Kingsbury, don't let facts get in the way of your fantasies. Here's a fact: Children who attend kindergarten, especially a kindergarten class with small class size and experienced teachers, do better in life, are more likely to go to college, and more likely to earn decent wages."

Health care ruling a victory for problem-solving policy

Rachel Maddow points out the role of the Affordable Care Act in solving the problem of America's terrible health care system

Four Reasons Why The Court’s Decision To Uphold Obamacare Is Good News For The Economy

Four Reasons Why The Court’s Decision To Uphold Obamacare Is Good News For The Economy: The Supreme Court today upheld the Affordable Care Act, the health care reform law signed by President Obama in 2010, ruling 5-4 that the law was constitutional. Chief Justice John Roberts joined Justices Sonya Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagan on the opinion. The individual mandate, the requirement that all Americans purchase [...]/p

Why The Individual Mandate Is Not A ‘Massive Tax Hike’ On The Middle Class

Why The Individual Mandate Is Not A ‘Massive Tax Hike’ On The Middle Class: The Supreme Court ruled today that the Affordable Care Act, the comprehensive health care reform package signed by President Obama in 2010, is constitutional. The Court upheld the law’s most controversial provision, the individual mandate, ruling that it is constitutional under the government’s authority to levy and collect taxes. Republicans have falsely claimed the mandate [...]/p

Why Obamacare Is A Tax Cut For Millions Of Americans

Why Obamacare Is A Tax Cut For Millions Of Americans: Following the Supreme Court’s ruling yesterday that Obamacare, the 2010 health care law, is constitutional under Congress’ ability to tax, Republicans have launched a full court press calling the individual mandate a “massive tax hike.” But as ThinkProgress noted yesterday, there is no massive tax hike: few people will ever pay the penalty, and those [...]/p

Taxes Are The New Death Panels: Exposing The Latest Lie About Obamacare

Taxes Are The New Death Panels: Exposing The Latest Lie About Obamacare: Republicans are responding to the Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the individual mandate by constructing a new “death panels”-like lie. The law, they argue, imposes a burdensome tax on millions of middle class families who will have to pay a penalty for not purchasing health care coverage by 2014. The line originates in the majority’s decision, [...]/p

SCOTUS ruling on ACA moves U.S. toward health care as a basic human right

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Medicare for all

Medicare for all
"The Republican majority of the Supreme Court is very likely to overturn the Affordable Care Act tomorrow, fully embracing the "let 'em die" attitude that has become the Republican rallying cry."

The American People Are Angry

"In a must see 25 minute speech, Senator Bernie Sanders took to the Senate floor and challenged Congress to break free of its billionaire masters and work for the American people." Copy and paste link to view article: http://www.politicususa.com/bernie-sanders-storms-senate-floor-challenges-congress-koch-whores.html

The Libertarian Mind: Behold The New Normal

The Libertarian Mind: Behold The New Normal
"This is what a sociopath looks like. In the 19th century, the same principle was expressed when Dickens wrote "Let them die, and decrease the surplus population." Yes, people still believe this, especially those who also claim to be Christians."

Montana can't keep corporate money out of it's elections...

The Supreme Court reaffirmed their Citizens United decision - saying Montana can't keep corporate money out of it's elections. Where does the fight go to get money out of politics stands after this latest blow?

Who is Bankrolling the Fight Against "Obamacare?" | Common Dreams

Who is Bankrolling the Fight Against "Obamacare?" | Common Dreams
"The lead plaintiff in the U.S. Supreme Court challenge to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the National Federation for Independent Business (NFIB), is a highly partisan front group masquerading as the "nation's leading small business association," critics say. The nation's highest court is expected to rule on the federal health care law Thursday."

Arizona Senate Candidate Rep. Jeff Flake Lobbied To Preserve South Africa’s Apartheid Government

Arizona Senate Candidate Rep. Jeff Flake Lobbied To Preserve South Africa’s Apartheid Government: In 1987, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) — then a lobbyist for a Namibian uranium mine — testified before the Utah State Senate in support of a resolution backing the apartheid government in South Africa. Flake, a sixth-term GOP congressman and current Arizona senate candidate, opposed sanctions on the segregationist Botha government — largely to support [...]/p

Revealed...FL Officials Misleading Public about Voter Purge

Saturday, June 23, 2012

PERRspectives: Mitt Romney's Golden Showers

PERRspectives: Mitt Romney's Golden Showers
"And so it goes. If Mitt Romney wins and gets his way in the White House, the very richest Americans will get much, much richer. And it will fall to every other taxpayer in America to replace the billions of dollars of revenue emptied from the Treasury. As Home Depot co-founder Kenneth Langone, who opened his cash spigots for Mitt Romney after Chris Christie decided to pass on a White House bid, explained it during an April lecture at Brandeis University:
"My notion about giving back is simple: I'm more of a beneficiary of my charity than the recipients of my charity. The more you give back, you think to yourself, 'Hey, maybe the world is a better place because I'm here.'"
If you have any questions about Langone's version of the view that "it's better to give than to receive," you can ask him yourself this weekend. You'll find him in Park City, Utah with Mitt Romney."

Latest GOP Election Law Violation: Keep Fat Cat Donors' Names Secret | | AlterNet

Latest GOP Election Law Violation: Keep Fat Cat Donors' Names Secret | | AlterNet
"In the Senate this week, 10 Republicans led by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch signed a letter attacking the Internal Revenue Service—which McConnell called the “speech police”—for seeking information about conservative political groups that were incorporated as nonprofit charities but which instead have been primarily engaged in partisan electioneering."

Friday, June 22, 2012

The Wild Conspiracy Theory Driving The Fast And Furious Investigation

The Wild Conspiracy Theory Driving The Fast And Furious Investigation: Here is theory that some Congressional Republicans believe: The Obama Administration intentionally handed over automatic weapons to Mexican drug cartels, who they knew would commit violent acts, because they wanted to scare Americans into supporting stricter gun laws. That supposed series of events has now led Congress to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt. [...]/p

REPORT: Most Anti-Environment House Of Representatives In History Voted 109 Times To Enrich Big Oil

REPORT: Most Anti-Environment House Of Representatives In History Voted 109 Times To Enrich Big Oil: The House of Representatives holds the title of the most anti-environment House in congressional history. Led by Republicans, the House has voted against the environment 247 times in the last 18 months, averaging one anti-environmental vote for every day the House has been in session. The newest report, released by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Ed [...]/p

VIDEO: Fox's Gas Price Predictions Fall Flat

VIDEO: Fox's Gas Price Predictions Fall Flat
"n its relentless coverage of rising gas prices, Fox News made some outrageous predictions of $5, $6, $7 and even $8 a gallon gasoline by summer. But these predictions have proven to be nothing more than wishful thinking by a network that hoped to use high prices at the pump as a campaign issue against President Obama."

Romney Doesn’t Dispute He Helped Send Jobs Overseas, Tells Press To Call It ‘Offshoring’ Not ‘Outsourcing’

Romney Doesn’t Dispute He Helped Send Jobs Overseas, Tells Press To Call It ‘Offshoring’ Not ‘Outsourcing’: The Washington Post reported today that Bain Capital, the private equity firm Mitt Romney headed for 15 years, invested extensively in companies that moved jobs overseas to low-wage countries like China. The practice contradicts the rhetoric of candidate Romney, who since announcing his presidential ambitions, has criticized government policies that have led to jobs, particularly [...]/p

GOP Congressman Says Ryan’s Medicare Plan Would Hurt Seniors

GOP Congressman Says Ryan’s Medicare Plan Would Hurt Seniors: House Republicans approved a budget in April that would drive up Medicare costs for seniors, and Mitt Romney has embraced the plan crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). But not all in the party are in agreement. Ten Republicans voted against Ryan’s budget in April, and now, Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) is campaigning on his [...]/p

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Goofy gun conspiracy surfaces in Congressional action

Insurers will have to pay out $1.1 billion in rebates if Obamacare survives the Supreme Court

Insurers will have to pay out $1.1 billion in rebates if Obamacare survives the Supreme Court
"If there's any silver lining to this, it's that for one year, insurance companies generally didmeet the demands of the law. Before the provision was enacted, health care system experts expected that rebates owed would be over $2 billion. Which means the law did what it was supposed to: make insurers spend more on covering actual health care."

From “ Racist,“ To “ Dick,“ To Heckling: How The Press Treats Obama

From “ Racist,“ To “ Dick,“ To Heckling: How The Press Treats Obama
"You probably can't even count the number of insults and smears that have been hurled at Obama by the GOP press, although Sally Kohn recently did a nice job of highlight some of the more vile broadsides:"

Republicans Holding Nearly 3 Million Transportation Jobs Hostage For 6,000 Temporary Oil Jobs

Republicans Holding Nearly 3 Million Transportation Jobs Hostage For 6,000 Temporary Oil Jobs: With as many as 2.9 million new and existing jobs on the line, House Republicans are refusing to pass a transportation reauthorization bill, even after the Senate’s version of the bill overwhelmingly passed through the upper chamber in a 74-22 bipartisan vote. The deadline for new transportation funding is June 30, and if the calendar [...]/p

12.8 Million Receive Insurance Rebates As A Result Of Obamacare

12.8 Million Receive Insurance Rebates As A Result Of Obamacare: 12.8 million Americans will receive $1.1 billion in rebates from insurers that have not met minimum spending guidelines in Obamacare, the administration announced Thursday morning. The Affordable Care Act requires insurers to spend 80 to 85 percent of premium dollars on health care services or issue rebates to policy holders. The average rebate is valued [...]/p

Romney To Republican Governor: Discussing The Economic Recovery Will Hurt My Election Chances

Romney To Republican Governor: Discussing The Economic Recovery Will Hurt My Election Chances: Republican governors in states across the country have been touting their states’ economic growth, pointing to falling unemployment rates and continued signs of economic recovery. Gov. Terry Branstad (R-IA) has expressed frustration that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is using his state as an example of the nation’s economic woes. However, since positive economic messages [...]/p

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Republicans want the middle class to pay for tax cuts for the rich

Republicans want the middle class to pay for tax cuts for the rich
"Remember, this is just the tax side of the Ryan plan. The devastating cuts to everything fromPell Grants to Medicaid and Medicare would put even bigger burdens on low-income and middle-class America."

PHOTOS: Catholic Nuns Protest Budget Cuts Outside GOP Rep. Paul Ryan’s Wisconsin Office

PHOTOS: Catholic Nuns Protest Budget Cuts Outside GOP Rep. Paul Ryan’s Wisconsin Office: The Nuns On A Bus Tour, a protest against spending cuts mandated by the House GOP budget, stopped yesterday outside the district offices of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the budget’s author. The stop, the second of 10 that the nine-state tour will make, followed an event at Rep. Steve King’s (R) Iowa office on Monday. [...]/p

New CIA Docs Show Bush Ignored Seven Different Warnings About Imminent Attacks

New CIA Docs Show Bush Ignored Seven Different Warnings About Imminent Attacks
"Seven different times, Bush was informed of imminent strikes by Bin Laden, and he simply ignored them? I guess they were so determined to go to war, they wanted any excuse they could get:"

The Ungodly Constitution: How the Founders Ensured America Would Not Be a Christian Nation | Belief | AlterNet

The Ungodly Constitution: How the Founders Ensured America Would Not Be a Christian Nation | Belief | AlterNet
"Was the United States founded as a Christian nation, meaning that the framers of the Constitution established a government whose laws would not only reflect but also enforce the rules of a particular brand of Christianity? No, period."

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Limbaugh and Right Wing Media Brethren Go After Obama With Racism--Again! | AlterNet

Limbaugh and Right Wing Media Brethren Go After Obama With Racism--Again! | AlterNet
"As the election season heats up, so does the racism, hardly even veiled, from the extreme edges of the Right Wing--aimed squarely at President Obama."

The Loch Ness Monster Is Real; The KKK Is Good: The Shocking Content of Publicly Paid for Christian School Textbooks | Education | AlterNet

The Loch Ness Monster Is Real; The KKK Is Good: The Shocking Content of Publicly Paid for Christian School Textbooks | Education | AlterNet
"Like the ACE curriculum, A Beka and Bob Jones textbooks promote Young-Earth creationism, are heavily laden with political bias, and at times verge on racism. As shown in the following video, among the dubious, factually incorrect, politically tendentious, and racially and culturally insensitive claims in A Beka Book and Bob Jones University Press textbooks are the following:

- Only ten percent of Africans can read or write, because Christian mission schools have been shut down by communists.
- "the [Ku Klux] Klan in some areas of the country tried to be a means of reform, fighting the decline in morality and using the symbol of the cross... In some communities it achieved a certain respectability as it worked with politicians."

- "God used the 'Trail of Tears' to bring many Indians to Christ."

- It "cannot be shown scientifically that that man-made pollutants will one day drastically reduce the depth of the atmosphere's ozone layer."

- "God has provided certain 'checks and balances' in creation to prevent many of the global upsets that have been predicted by environmentalists."

- the Great Depression was exaggerated by propagandists, including John Steinbeck, to advance a socialist agenda.

- "Unions have always been plagued by socialists and anarchists who use laborers to destroy the free-enterprise system that hardworking Americans have created."

- Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential win was due to an imaginary economic crisis created by the media."

Monday, June 18, 2012

Dark Ages Redux: American Politics and the End of the Enlightenment | Common Dreams

Dark Ages Redux: American Politics and the End of the Enlightenment | Common Dreams
"We are witnessing an epochal shift in our socio-political world.  We are de-evolving, hurtling headlong into a past that was defined by serfs and lords; by necromancy and superstition; by policies based on fiat, not facts."

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan campaign on the freedom of living without Medicare

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan campaign on the freedom of living without Medicare
"Yes, we want to be free from Medicare, and that's what Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will deliver to us, if Romney's elected. That'll be true either with Ryan on the ticket with him, or continuing as the House budget leader. Ryan's and Romney's moral compass points to as much suffering for as many of the undeserving as they can ladle out, starting with ending Medicare."

Republicans Love Big Government (So Long as It Serves Big Business) | Common Dreams

Republicans Love Big Government (So Long as It Serves Big Business) | Common Dreams
"...for conservatives the goal is not ensuring a decent standard of living for the bulk of the population. Rather the goal is ensuring that money is redistributed upward. And, of course, the conservatives are smart enough not to own up to their use of the government."

Birthers Erect ‘Obama Outhouse’ At Montana GOP Convention

Birthers Erect ‘Obama Outhouse’ At Montana GOP Convention: A shotgun, an outhouse, and a birth certificate stamped “bullshit” all made appearances at Montana’s GOP convention over the weekend. At Saturday’s convention in Missoula, Montana, a few convention-goers set up outside with an outhouse labeled “Obama’s Presidential Library.” But that wasn’t the most outrageous part. According to the Missoulian, the outhouse was also decorated [...]/p

Friday, June 15, 2012

Tea Party Sen. Jim DeMint Wants JPMorgan CEO to 'Guide' Congress on Banking Regulation

Tea Party Sen. Jim DeMint Wants JPMorgan CEO to 'Guide' Congress on Banking Regulation
"Dimon announced in May that his firm had lost $2 billion gambling on derivatives, but only days later, experts said the losses had surged to at least $3 billion."

PERRspectives: Romney's Big Lie on the Economy Now Bigger than Ever

PERRspectives: Romney's Big Lie on the Economy Now Bigger than Ever
"Barack Obama entered office in 2009 as the Bush recession was in full swing. GDP had plummeted by a shocking 8.9 percent the previous quarter. 820,000 jobs were lost in January 2009 alone; all told 2.2 million evaporated in the three months before Obama's stimulus was passed in February. (That might explain why even three years after he left office, Americans still blame George W. Bush for the economic calamity he bequeathed to Barack Obama.) Now, even with the difficult recovery, the U.S. has produced 27 months of private sector job gains and a return to economic growth. And despite Romney's charge that President Obama's are "the most anti-investment, anti-business, anti-jobs series of polices in modern American history," the Dow Jones has jumped by 56 percent since January 20, 2009. Corporate profits are at record highs even as firms' tax burden continues to drop."

Thursday, June 14, 2012

5 Reasons Americans Are Right To Blame Bush For The Economy

5 Reasons Americans Are Right To Blame Bush For The Economy: Sixty-eight percent of Americans — including 49 percent of Republicans — say President George W. Bush is responsible for the state of today’s economy, a new Gallup poll finds. Indeed, the country is still reeling from Bush’s disastrous economic stewardship. His irresponsible tax cuts and deregulatory policies have contributed significantly to the slow recovery and [...]/p

Tea Party Sen. Jim DeMint Wants JPMorgan CEO to 'Guide' Congress on Banking Regulation

Tea Party Sen. Jim DeMint Wants JPMorgan CEO to 'Guide' Congress on Banking Regulation
"Tea party favorite Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) on Wednesday asked JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who recently announced that his company had lost at least $2 billion in the derivative market, to "guide" Congress in creating friendly banking regulations."

Architect of Anti-Health Care Lawsuit Admits To His Broader Agenda — No National Child Labor Laws, No Minimum Wage

Architect of Anti-Health Care Lawsuit Admits To His Broader Agenda — No National Child Labor Laws, No Minimum Wage: The framers of our Constitution met in 1787 because the weak national governance adopted by the Articles of Confederation utterly failed. Their goal, in their own words, was to ensure that the federal government had the power to “legislate in all cases for the general interests of the Union, and also in those to which [...]/p

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

New York to Repeat Chicago’s Parking Privatization Catastrophe | Common Dreams

New York to Repeat Chicago’s Parking Privatization Catastrophe | Common Dreams
"Readers of my last book, Griftopiamight recall a chapter about the city of Chicago leasing 75 years of its parking meter revenue to a coterie of private investors, some of them from the Middle East. The end result was and is a political obscenity: Native Chicagoans are now completely at the mercy of private interests when it comes to parking rates, collections, even holidays. When elected officials in Illinois can’t shut off the parking meters on Abe Lincoln’s birthday because a bunch of sheiks in Dubai don’t want the revenue stream turned off even for a day, you know something has gone seriously sideways in the national body politic."

Venture capitalist, Nick Hanauer, on the negative impacts of income inequality on the economy

How Wall Street Hustles America's Cities and States Out of Billions | Economy | AlterNet

How Wall Street Hustles America's Cities and States Out of Billions | Economy | AlterNet
"We all know that America’s cities and towns are in the throes of a deep financial crisis. And are told, over and over, what’s supposedly behind it: unreasonable demands by grasping state and municipal workers for pay and pensions. The diagnosis is a grotesque cartoon. Many of the biggest budget busters are on Wall Street, not Main Street."

Sunday, June 10, 2012

The 10 Worst GOP Governors: What Horrors Did They Unleash in 2012? | | AlterNet

The 10 Worst GOP Governors: What Horrors Did They Unleash in 2012? | | AlterNet
"Across the country, Republican governors, many of them elected in the Tea Party wave of 2010, have undermined women's health, crushed workers' right to negotiate collectively, made it tougher to vote and imposed ideologically informed slash-and-burn policies on their populations, often with little attention from the mainstream media. Last summer, we reported on 10 of the worst GOP governors and what they were up to. Where are they now? Culling voter rolls, beating up on unions, trying to sneakily ban abortion—but also, in some cases, having their power checked by a determined opposition and being forced to concede some defeats. And in a couple of cases, they're under investigation. Here's our 2012 list of the worst GOP governors."

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Friday, June 8, 2012

Florida’s Tea Party Government Picks Voter Purge Fight With Justice Department | | AlterNet

Florida’s Tea Party Government Picks Voter Purge Fight With Justice Department | | AlterNet
"The Tea Party Republican-run state of Florida is picking a nasty political fight with the U.S. Department of Justice over what it claims are federal obstructions to removing what it alleges may be up to 180,000 non-citizens on the state’s voter rolls."

Friday, June 1, 2012

Will Brewing Corruption Scandals in Ohio Have an Impact on November's Election? | | AlterNet

Will Brewing Corruption Scandals in Ohio Have an Impact on November's Election? | | AlterNet
"Investigations by the FBI into campaign donations and strong-arm tactics in Ohio's Republican Party implicate big-name politicians, like anti-union Governor John Kasich."

Shameless: Florida's Tea Party Governor Trying to Strip Voting Rights from Thousands | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet

Shameless: Florida's Tea Party Governor Trying to Strip Voting Rights from Thousands | Tea Party and the Right | AlterNet
"even county election supervisors from Scott’s own party are saying the businessman-turned-governor’s latest gambit—claiming there are as many as 182,000 non-citizens among the state’s 11.2 million registered voters and having his appointed Secretary of State send out an initial list of 2,600 names to be purged—has crossed a line in the Florida sand, topping previous voter suppression efforts, and may violate two federal voting right laws."