January 29, 2014

It's never about spending on the war machine

When RW'ers go on and on about what we can't afford it is always about our tax dollars being used to lift people up.
That is their beef. And they cloak it in terms of those getting help as "takers".

It's NEVER about the outrageous private contractors selling our government multi-billion dollars systems we don't need or endless spying or war.

I absolutely despise this attitude and have a hard time not hating the people who promote it.

January 20, 2014

Barack Obama has a weed problem

After Defending Pot, Obama has to Pardon Medical Marijuana Growers He Jailed

Barack Obama has a weed problem. Not just that he’s admitted using it. He said clearly when campaigning for president in 2008 that he approved of medical marijuana.

Yet his Attorney General, Eric Holder and his Department of Justice went on to launch punitive campaigns against legitimate marijuana businesses operating within state law. It isn’t even clear these raids and arrests were constitutional, since no interstate commerce was involved.

He has averaged 36 medical marijuana prosecutions a year since taking office in 2009, whereas even W. only averaged 20 a year. Most egregious are that many of these cases were brought against persons who needed the drug to ameliorate painful medical conditions.

Now Obama comes out and says pot is no worse than alcohol. So was he not in control of Holder and the Department of Justice? Was he seeking campaign money from Seagrams and Big Pharma, who are afraid of competition from marijuana? What explains this massive hypocrisy and willingness to ruin people’s lives to enforce a prohibition he doesn’t agree with?
Doesn’t he have a duty to pardon the 154 people he has prosecuted in contravention of his campaign pledge and in contravention of state laws?

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/after_defending_pot_obama_has_to_pardon_medical_marijuana_growers_20142001

January 18, 2014

I've always been a single-payer advocate but I must admit...

...I had been lulled into complacency somewhat with the ACA.

The harsh ACA reality here in California is that insurance companies have combined extremely narrow and limited networks along with pitiful doctor choices for a toxic mix of substandard coverage.

People will be forced to seek care outside their networks to get adequate and in some cases the specialized care they will need to survive.

There will still be bankruptcies due to health care costs. Those with coverage are still going to see their rates rise to cover those who can't afford their care.

The ACA is a band-aid over a gaping wound.
We need a public health care system in the USA NOW more then ever!

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Blue Shield will offer only limited network Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) and Exclusive Provider Organization(EPO)plans to all new individual buyers. All new customers who have been anticipating purchasing guaranteed issue individual insurance for themselves and their families, will have access to a network that excludes 65% of current Blue Shield doctors and all the University of California Medical Centers.

Network access will be determined by county of residence. In Marin and Alameda counties, for example, Blue Shield plans to use an Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO). Buyers will find their access to medical services restricted to the doctors and medical facilities within the EPO in their county or an EPO doctor in another county. If the policyholder crosses the Golden Gate Bridge or Bay Bridge to consult with a San Francisco PPO doctor, s/he will have no insurance. If a San Francisco resident moves to Alameda, s/he will not be able to keep her San Francisco doctors.

It appears that carriers are also able to exclude residents of specific zip codes from access to their insurance plans. If one carrier can exclude residents in certain zip codes, what is the rationale to require other carriers to cover residents in that same zip code? The ACA requires insurers to accept all applicants regardless of health conditions. But California is allowing exclusion by residence location.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-shargel/protect-californians-choi_b_4158146.html

January 17, 2014

HARRY REID BACKS MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Source: HuffPo

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) came out in favor of medical marijuana Thursday in a Las Vegas Sun interview, becoming one of the highest elected officials in the U.S. government to give his support.

"If you’d asked me this question a dozen years ago, it would have been easy to answer -- I would have said no, because [marijuana] leads to other stuff," Reid was quoted as saying. "But I can’t say that anymore."

"I think we need to take a real close look at this,” he added. “I think that there’s some medical reasons for marijuana."

Although it remains illegal under federal law, polls show that most Americans support medical marijuana. And Attorney General Eric Holder announced in August that the Department of Justice would not interfere, at least at first, as states that have legalized weed for adults create their regulatory regimes -- a dramatic policy shift from federal authorities' targeting of medical marijuana dispensaries that were legal under state law.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also supports medical marijuana. Neither Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) nor House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) does.










Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/16/harry-reid-medical-marijuana_n_4612659.html

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It's about time!

January 15, 2014

The next step for the ACA?

Many times I have both praised and criticized the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Removing preexisting conditions and subsidizing those of us whose income falls within 400% of the Federal Poverty Level is huge also, however...

*We still have high costs.
*We are subsidizing a corrupt privatized health system.
*Health insurance corporations still control which doctors and what treatments you can have.

I realize that the private sector health system's tentacles reach deep and are snarled up in financial sectors that affect our overall economy in many ways. Untangling this mess won't be easy but we need to continue to fight for a saner health care system.

I support a public health care system as a public service for "we the people".
It's time our tax dollars helped us for a change.

January 4, 2014

Kentucky Man Denounces US Safety Net...

"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
--Lyndon Johnson



...While Relying on Government to Stay Alive

In a recent National Journal article, journalist Beth Reinhold exposes yet again the politically destructive reality that many poor whites -- particularly in the South -- will vote for candidates opposing government safety net programs, all the while accepting or living off those programs.

Reinhold chooses Kentucky as her case in point, where Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wages racial class warfare with his ongoing denunciation of government assistance to the needy.

Unfortunately, poor whites have long been lured by the Pied Piper "welfare queen" image (a mythical black woman allegedly driving a Cadillac paid for by Medicaid and food stamps -- no, it doesn't make any economic sense; it's sort of like a Disney fantasy for racists), even when, as Reinhold points out "ample and objective statistics show...that most welfare recipients are white families with children, the stereotype of the welfare queen persists."

FULL ARTICLE HERE

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"Divide and Conquer"...it's what they do.