He's just an ordinary average guy and his life's been good so far.
I think the real Joe Walsh should sue this guy for giving him a bad name.
__________________ Hear me / and if I close my mind in fear / please pry it open See me / and if my face becomes sincere / beware Hold me / and when I start to come undone / stitch me together Save me / and when you see me strut / remind me of what left this outlaw torn
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"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis D. Brandeis
"Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are." ~ S. Gecko
According to Weigel, Scalia referred to a provision of the affordable care law which is not actually in the law. He evidently gets his news from Fox or Rush and didn't realize that the provision was not in fact in the final law.
Quote:
There was in a strange moment in today's severability argument at SCOTUS. Justice Antonin Scalia referred to a deal that Sen. Ben Nelson once made, to make a hypothetical point about what could take down the law.
"If we struck down nothing in this legislation but the -- what's it called, the Cornhusker kickback, okay, we find that to violate the constitutional proscription of venality, okay?" asked Scalia, talking to Paul Clement. "When we strike that down, it's clear that Congress would not have passed it without that. It was the means of getting the last necessary vote in the Senate. And you are telling us that the whole statute would fall because the Cornhusker kickback is bad. That can't be right."
The deal that Scalia was referring to -- legendary in conservative anti-Obamacare circles -- was not a classic "kickback." Nelson negotiated for indefinite, unending Medicaid funding for his state. That ended up as part of the bill that initially passed the U.S. Senate on a 60-40 vote.
Here's the rub: It's not actually part of the law. Democrats removed the Nebraska deal in the final tortured negotiations that passed the PPACA in the House. When it got to the Senate again, Democrats only needed 51 votes to pass it; Nelson, who'd gotten the bad press from the deal AND nothing to show for it, glumly voted no.
Here's another rub. In early coverage of Scalia's zinger, the fate of the "kickback" is totally left out. It might be because no one in the room pointed out the mistake. Or it might be that Scalia, and lots of other people, have internalized the conservative case against the law.
When a questioner asked West about Marxists in “the American legislature,” some in the crowd jeered, but West took a different approach.
“No, it’s a good question,” he said, adding: “I believe there is about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party.”
After a long pause, West adds that he is talking about the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of 76 of the more liberal Democrats in the U.S. House.
Last night Rachel pointed out that the policies propounded by the Progressive caucus, about whom West was making shit up, are supported by a solid majority of Americans.
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Chained out, like a sitting duck just waiting for the fall _Cage the Elephant
I lubs me some Dr. Keith "Wingnut Punditry Beats the Shit out of Practicing Medicine" Ablow ().
A Democratic strategist named Hilary Rosen apparently pointed out the other day that Ann Romney, spouse of "Mitt" Romney (who's running for President under a fake name despite providing no proof of being a natural-born citizen of the United States), has "never . . . worked a day in her life." Dr. Ablow (), a psychiatrist, finds that comment telling and troubling:
Quote:
What Hilary Rosen has exposed is a psychological fault line that separates those women who simply oppose unfair gender-based barriers in education or employment or elsewhere from other women who actually despise and disrespect those females who choose to be full-time wives and mothers, instead of entering the workforce.
These “anti-gender” women have it in for anyone who embraces her femininity, maternal instincts and capacity to nurture as their highest priority -- postponing or passing up other laudable opportunities to work at, say, a law firm or as a marketing executive. They despise the notion that some women may indeed be drawn -- instinctively and happily -- toward creating special and loving environments in which to raise their children, while spending all their available time sustaining and enriching those environments and those children.
Women like Rosen also "despise the parts of themselves that may be drawn to" pumping out a snot miner every nine months and staying home to care for them (or hire nannies to take care of them). It's true, cuz a doctor said so.
You know what else? Rosen is a big fat dyke is what!
Quote:
Hilary Rosen vilifying women who choose to be stay-at-home wives and mothers is particularly ironic, given that she has chosen an alternative lifestyle raising twins with a female partner, meaning no father-figure is present in her home. To enjoy the benefits of her alternative lifestyle while denigrating the lifestyle of Ann Romney shows that her seemingly infinite bandwidth for alternative lifestyles flows in one direction: only alternative.
Ann Romney is simply letting her husband "be comfortable being a man." In liberal bulldyke Hilary Rosen's eyes, that qualifies as "a cultural crime and psychological assault."
On the plus side, it's good to know that understanding what "vilify" and "ironic" mean is not a condition precedent to getting a medical degree.
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"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis D. Brandeis
"Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are." ~ S. Gecko
I think Rosen's comment was a mistake and sounded like sour grapes and she should apologize. There's a real point to be made about the Romneys being out of touch with middle America because they are so fabulously wealthy, and yes, though it has become an unattainable luxury to many to have the option of being a stay at home parent, there's no need ever to denigrate that choice. More people would make that choice, I think, if it was an option at all.
That being said, yeah I don't think that makes Rosen like a psychopath or anything needing a doctor's opinion or intervention.
I find it interesting that it is often framed as working women vs stay at home Moms, like everyone has a choice and can just stay at home and let your nanny raise your kids for you, instead of doing both like many American families.
Double score for the Republicans, who now have an apology and a golden opportunity to market and sell wingnut schwag.
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"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis D. Brandeis
"Psychos do not explode when sunlight hits them, I don't give a fuck how crazy they are." ~ S. Gecko
Foster Friess just keeps em coming, huh? First the aspirin between the knees now this, both with his nasty little chuckle
Quote:
“There’s a lot of things that haven’t been hammered at because Rick and Mitt have been kind of going at each other. Now that they’ve kind of trained their barrels on President Obama I’m afraid his, I hope his teleprompters are bulletproof.”
Double score for the Republicans, who now have an apology and a golden opportunity to market and sell wingnut schwag.
Is that "actual size"? What must a real cup with real graphics on it look like?
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The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.
-- Official Bunny Hero
Or even paid maternity leave? I'm always amazed how little the allegedly pro-family party supports actual families.
It's fun to annoy "pro-lifers" by not talking about abortion but everything else that goes into having a baby. Like what Pre and Post natal vitamins they think should be taken, where is the best clinic for postpartum depression, what adoption services do they support, etc.
Or complex questions like, your daughter is on heavy anti-psychotics and is doing well, and accidentally gets pregnant. The doctor says going off the meds could result in suicide or dangerous behavior but staying on the meds will certainly cause birth defects. What should she do?
I've run into only a handful of pro-life people who had good answers (or any answers) to these, and they were never part of one of these "family" groups.
Because, yes, I have talked to a person who had cystic fibrosis, who was very firmly of the opinion that his parents were fuckups and should have had him aborted.
This sort of short-circuits the "but wouldn't you want to live?" argument. In at least one case, the answer was "well, frankly, no."
__________________ Hear me / and if I close my mind in fear / please pry it open See me / and if my face becomes sincere / beware Hold me / and when I start to come undone / stitch me together Save me / and when you see me strut / remind me of what left this outlaw torn
Because, yes, I have talked to a person who had cystic fibrosis, who was very firmly of the opinion that his parents were fuckups and should have had him aborted.
This sort of short-circuits the "but wouldn't you want to live?" argument. In at least one case, the answer was "well, frankly, no."
and what did you tell that person?
my father raised a lot of money for cystic fibrosis through a group he was a part of. many of them had much better attitudes, even if they did have hard lives.
i'm sure there are physically healthy people that wish their parents aborted them, too.
Well, to be fair he did seem to be very much in the minority, at least judging from the shitstorm that resulted when he voiced that opinion on a CF forum.
It was also more complicated than being born with a life-shortening, and often painful, illness. His parents really were batshit crazy, unsupportive fuck-ups, so he got a double-whammy.
Well, to be fair he did seem to be very much in the minority, at least judging from the shitstorm that resulted when he voiced that opinion on a CF forum.
It was also more complicated than being born with a life-shortening, and often painful, illness. His parents really were batshit crazy, unsupportive fuck-ups, so he got a double-whammy.
Yeah. Mostly what I told him was that he was pretty damn cool.
And yeah, some people have it easier, or harder, than others. But I have a nice solid concrete example to point to.
__________________ Hear me / and if I close my mind in fear / please pry it open See me / and if my face becomes sincere / beware Hold me / and when I start to come undone / stitch me together Save me / and when you see me strut / remind me of what left this outlaw torn