Center Ring of the Republican Circus & The NYT Editorial Board Get It Right 9MAI14

IN the center ring, wasting taxpayer money and squandering time that could be better spent actually governing (if they actually knew how to do the latter), the repiglicans and tea-baggers of the benghazi-gate house "investigative" committee will show the nation how they are able to shove their heads up their own asses and then through massive group hypnosis broadcast on fox will get everyone watching to do the same. The grand finale will be hannity interviewing house speaker rep john boehner, while they both have their heads up boehner's ass, on the complicity in and coverup by the Obama administration of the the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. And here's a review of the New York Times editorial on the committee.....

Fri May 09, 2014 at 02:40 AM EDT

The NYT Editorial Board Get It Right

by LaFeminista

Bang on the money if you ask me
The Republican Party whilst doing nothing for the nation have decided a fun way to do less than nothing and with complete disregard to any costs incurred.
On the kangaroo court

Republicans vying for a seat on the Benghazi kangaroo court, also known as the Select House Committee to Inflate a Tragedy Into a Scandal.

All because the frothing at the mouth brigade smell blood where there is none. Of course the GOPs  persecution complex is also fed.

The day before, they voted to hold in contempt Lois Lerner, the former Internal Revenue Service official whom they would love to blame for the administration’s crackdown on conservative groups, if only they could prove there was a crackdown, which they can’t, because there wasn’t.

As for Democrats joining in the Benghazi Circus

Democrats who are now debating whether to participate in the committee shouldn’t hesitate to skip it. Their presence would only lend legitimacy to a farce.

As for Republican disregard of others rights

Little nuisances like constitutional rights or basic facts can’t be allowed to stand in the way when House Republicans need to whip up their party’s fury.

Republicans have demonstrated yet again that when they cannot start preemptive wars, torture, give the wealth of the nation to the rich, persecute anyone not like them, they fall into their standard set of procedures: 1] If we cannot impeach a President we will just fuck up government.
2] Hold pointless proceedings to stir up the crazy.
3] If all else fails throw a wrench into the works and then go on Fox Noise to complain that the wrench has broken the works.
It is astounding that they look at science as a conspiracy.
It is funny [in a sick kind of way] how they regard equality for all as infringing upon their rights.
It is going to be an ugly couple of years.

Thu May 08, 2014 at 11:57 PM PT: A useful plan from Lying eyes in the comments
House Switchboard 1-202-224-3121
How about each of us making two calls,  one telling Nancy to just say NO and one to our Democratic representative urging him/her to encourage the leadership to say HELL NO.

(VIDEO) Republican Texas Judge has had enough of Republican homophobia and bigotry, switches parties & MORE SUGGESTED READING FROM DAILY KOS 21OKT13

I think we will see more of this in Texas and across the country. We need more people like Judge Carlo Key.....
I love this story being reported by Think Progress. It seems that Bexar, Texas County Criminal Court Judge Carlo Key has had enough of the fire-breathing homophobia and racism of the Republican party. In a video posted to YouTube today, Key renounces his Republican affiliation and goes into quite the rant over why he has decided he will run for re-election as a Democrat.

http://youtu.be/TtPdKjkcZCU

I can no longer be a member of the Republican Party. For too long, the Republican Party has been at war with itself. Rational Republican beliefs have given way to ideological character assassinations. Pragmatism and principal have been overtaken by pettiness and bigotry. Make no mistake: I have not left the Republican Party. It left me. I cannot tolerate a political party that demeans Texans based on their sexual orientation, the color of their skin or their economic status. I will not be a member of a Party in which hate speech elevates candidates for higher office rather than disqualifying them. I cannot place my name on the ballot for a political party that is proud to destroy the lives of hundreds of thousands of federal workers over the vain attempt to repeal a law that would provide health care to millions of people throughout our country.

He goes on to cite the nasty diatribe that City Councilwomen Elisa Chan embarked on at a closed-door meeting last May during the city of San Antonio's debate over whether to introduce sexual orientation and gender identity to the city’s nondiscrimination policies.

You know, to be quite honest, I know this is not politically correct. I never bought in that you are born, that you are born gay. I can’t imagine it. I don’t think homosexual people should do adoption. … You’re going to confuse those kids. They should be banned.
If you wanted to choose that lifestyle, we don’t want to discriminate you, but you shouldn’t affect the young people. How terrible. … They’re going to be confused. You see two men go into a bedroom. You see two women kissing. Is that not confusing? It’s confusing.
So disgusting.

The proposal to change the non-discrimination language passed in San Antonio, but not before seeing Texas-sized bigotry at its ugliest. Given the ramped up crazy rhetoric from the Tea Party as well as the Social Conservatives, I think we will begin to see a lot more Republicans like Judge Key pack up and leave them while expressing this sentiment:

I have not left the Republican Party. It left me.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/21/1249456/-Republican-Texas-Judge-has-had-enough-of-Republican-homophobia-switches-parties?detail=facebook?detail=email

None of these articles are about Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, so help the rest of the country out by sharing them far and wide:

• Cartoon: Tea Party logic by Tom Tomorrow


• OMG! Pope says 'ideological Christians' as a 'serious illness' within the Church by roseeriter


• The other shoe drops for Scott Walker. Another John Doe probe revealed and it is statewide by Puddytat


• AP reporter & editor fired for bogus McAuliffe piece by ericlewis0


• Texas textbook publishers say no to creationism by The Baculum King


• Republican Texas judge has had enough of Republican homophobia and bigotry, switches parties by Steveningen


• This is why Ted Cruz will continue holding America hostage by Egberto Willies


• Utah rock vandal filed lawsuit in September, claims disability by Jen Hayden


• New poll: Republican Party clobbered itself during shutdown by Jed Lewison

Log in or sign up for Daily Kos. There is nowhere else you can write a blog post with a good chance to be read by tens of thousands of dedicated progressive activists.

Thanks for all you do,
The Daily Kos team

The best of Right Wing Watch: Values Voter Summit Edition 17OKT13

EXPOSING the hypocrisy of the attendees and speakers at the values voter summit. I have to wonder, would these people speak these same lies, hatreds, and deceptions to Jesus Christ? From PFAW.....

Below, please find a "Best of the Blog" update from PFAW's Right Wing Watch. This special edition focuses on the so-called Values Voter Summit, an annual gathering of Republican leaders and a who's who of the Radical Right movement that took place this past weekend in Washington, DC.

BEST OF THE BLOG October 17, 2013       In This Issue       Who's Who At The Values Voter Summit 2013 Carson: Obamacare 'Is The Worst Thing That Has Happened In This Nation Since Slavery' Rubio: There Is A 'Rising Tide Of Intolerance' Against Conservative Christians 'Values Voters' Laugh About Gay Persecution, Get Bad History Lesson From Glenn Beck           TELL A FRIEND           MAKE A DONATION           Headlines     Ted Cruz Jokes Obama Will Try To Kidnap Him     Lila Rose Likens Her Anti-Abortion Activism To Malala Yousafzai     Rios: Matthew Shepard Murder A 'Complete Fraud'     Jim Bob Duggar Compares US To Nazi Germany During The Holocaust     Parker: Gay People And 'Enemies Of God' Should 'Keep It Private'     Bachmann: Obama's Health Care Law Will Be Known As 'DeathCare'

SPOTLIGHT       Who's Who At The Values Voter Summit 2013     While Ted Cruz and Rand Paul were the event’s biggest speakers -- along with Republican congressmen Paul Ryan, Michele Bachmann, Louie Gohmert, Jim Bridenstine, Scott Turner, Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan -- these GOP officials spoke alongside some of the most radical figures in the conservative movement. Read More >       POSTS   Carson: Obamacare 'Is The Worst Thing That Has Happened In This Nation Since Slavery'       Speaking at the Values Voter Summit, Ben Carson told the audience that Obamacare is "the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery." In fact, Carson said, "it is slavery in a way because it is making all of us subservient to the government." Claiming that the passage of health care reform was all about control, Carson said the entire push for the legislation originated with Vladimir Lenin, who knew that "socialized medicine is the keystone to the establishment of a socialist state." Watch >     Rubio: There Is A 'Rising Tide Of Intolerance' Against Conservative Christians       Speaking at the Values Voter Summit, Sen. Marco Rubio told the audience that they can never stop fighting for their social values if they hope to save this nation and complained that there is a "rising tide of intolerance" that is being directed against anyone who stands up for them. Watch >     'Values Voters' Laugh About Gay Persecution, Get Bad History Lesson From Glenn Beck       Glenn Beck devoted his address at the Values Voter Summit this weekend to the Obama administration's supposed war on the religious freedom of Christians, a concept he illustrated with a collection of Nazi concentration camp badges. Beck suggested that those attending the summit would have been forced to wear a purple triangle patch. Conference attendees erupted in laughter after an audience member incorrectly claimed that the purple triangle, rather than the pink triangle, was used by the Nazis to mark gay people. Watch >       Click here for even more from Right Wing Watch on the Values Voter Summit (if you can handle it) > Follow Right Wing Watch on Twitter > Like Right Wing Watch on Facebook >

Ann Coulter says no doctors who went to an American medical school will be accepting Obamacare 16OKT13

FOTZE ann coulter is spreading lies again, but what else can you expect from this Schlempe? From PolitiFact....

The Truth-O-Meter Says:

"No doctors who went to an American medical school will be accepting Obamacare."

Ann Coulter on Wednesday, October 9th, 2013 in a column

Ann Coulter says no doctors who went to an American medical school will be accepting Obamacare

Share this story:

Conservative political commentator Ann Coulter leaves a party at the Honey Pot in Tampa's Ybor City during the 2012 Republican National Convention.

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter is not known for mincing words, but a recent column prompted many PolitiFact readers to contact us, seeking a fact-check.
In the Oct. 9, 2013, column -- titled, "Democrats to America: We Own the Government!" -- Coulter pummels Democrats over provisions of President Barack Obama’s health care law.
We were most intrigued by one claim, since we hadn’t heard it before -- that "no doctors who went to an American medical school will be accepting Obamacare."
Really?
We tried to ask Coulter through her speaker’s bureau if she could provide any evidence for this, but we did not receive a reply. We are sure the claim wasn't intended as a joke, because it's included in a bullet-point list of straightforward criticisms of the law.
So let’s start by looking at the claim literally. Is there any provision of the Affordable Care Act that would prevent U.S.-trained doctors from accepting "Obamacare" patients -- that is, patients who secure insurance through the marketplaces that are a centerpiece of the law?
We feel comfortable, both from talking to experts and from our years of reporting on the law, that there is no such provision. If there were, it would probably be ripe for challenge on constitutional grounds.
In fact, when we asked experts for their reaction to this claim, their responses included words such as "outrageous," "ridiculous" and "ludicrous."
"Of course there's nothing in the law that would bar any doctor from seeing any patient," said Katherine Baicker, a health economist at the Harvard School of Public Health.
So, no dice on the literal reading of her claim.
Still, we wondered whether there was some other tiny, buried grain of truth in what Coulter claimed. Is the idea that American-trained doctors will be pickier about accepting insurance?
There is some evidence that medical practices are wary about taking patients from plans sold on the marketplace. In September, the Medical Group Management Association -- a trade group for medical-practice executives -- surveyed 1,000 physician groups that collectively employ 47,500 doctors.
The survey asked, among other things, "Does your practice plan to participate with any new health insurance products sold on an ACA exchange?" Only 29 percent of respondents gave a definitive "yes." That rate is twice as high as the share that that said "no" (14 percent) but less than those that were still weighing their options (40 percent).
The top reasons? A fear of bureaucratic regulations, low reimbursement rates and the need to collect payment from patients with higher deductibles.
However, it’s important to remember that this study is not evidence that can be used to support Coulter’s specific claim, because it says nothing about foreign-trained doctors.
In fact, the closer you look at the issue of foreign-trained doctors, the less plausible Coulter’s claim becomes.
According to a 2010 study by the American Medical Association, about 26 percent of physicians in the United States were trained in other countries. This number includes both foreign-born doctors who trained overseas and Americans who received their medical education in other countries.
But tough licensing requirements for foreign-trained doctors -- requirements that won’t be changed by Obama’s law -- are keeping the number of foreign-trained physicians low. A key barrier is the need to obtain a residency in the United States, even if an applicant had practiced or had a residency overseas.
According to the New York Times, just 42 percent of foreign-trained immigrant physicians who applied for residencies through the leading matching service succeeded, compared to 94 percent of those who had trained in the United States.
With such high barriers to entry, it’s not credible that a flood of foreign-trained doctors will suddenly swoop in and, without the help of a single American-trained doctor, serve each one of the newly insured patients who bought policies on the new marketplaces.
"I haven't seen any study that would suggest that American-trained doctors would be disproportionately less likely to see the newly insured," Baicker said.
And even if there were such evidence, "disproportionate is a far cry from ‘none,’ " said Gail Wilensky, the former head of Medicare and Medicaid under President George H.W. Bush. "There is no limit to the nonsense that some are saying. This borders on the absurd."
Our ruling
Coulter said that "no doctors who went to an American medical school will be accepting Obamacare." Nothing in the law bars American-trained physicians from treating newly insured people under Obamacare. It’s a ridiculous claim -- one with a whiff of xenophobia -- that merits a Pants on Fire.

About this statement:

Published: Wednesday, October 16th, 2013 at 5:44 p.m.
Subjects: Health Care, Pundits
Sources:
Ann Coulter, "Democrats to America: We Own the Government!" Oct 9, 2013
Medical Group Management Association, "ACA Insurance Exchange Implementation, Sept. 2013"
American Medical Association, "International Medical Graduates in American Medicine: Contemporary challenges and opportunities," January 2010
New York Times, "Path to United States Practice Is Long Slog to Foreign Doctors," Aug. 11, 2013
Email interview with Gail Wilensky, former head of Medicare and Medicaid under President George H.W. Bush, Oct. 16, 2013
Email interview with Robert Zirkelbach, vice president of strategic communications at America's Health Insurance Plans, Oct. 16, 2013
Email interview with Brenda L. Craine, director of American Medical Association media and editorial, Oct. 16, 2013
Email interview with Austin Frakt, Boston University health economist, Oct. 16, 2013
Email interview with Aaron E. Carroll, professor of pediatrics and assistant dean for research mentoring at Indiana University School of Medicine, Oct. 16, 2013
Email interview with Katherine Baicker, health economist at the Harvard School of Public Health, Oct. 16, 2013
Email interview with Fitzhugh Mullan, professor of medicine and health policy at George Washington University, Oct. 16, 2013
Written by: Louis Jacobson
Researched by: Louis Jacobson
Edited by: Angie Drobnic Holanhttp://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/oct/16/ann-coulter/ann-coulter-says-no-doctors-who-went-american-medi/

If You Succumb to Cynicism, the Regressives Win It All 25OKT12

HERE'S a great piece from Robert Reich kicking whining Progressives in the ass and making everyone who is thinking about not voting a dose of reality......
This is for those of you who consider yourself to be progressive but have given up on politics because it seems rotten to the core. You may prefer Obama to Romney but don't think there's a huge difference between the two, so you may not even vote.
Your cynicism is understandable. But cynicism is a self-fulfilling prophesy. If you succumb to it, the regressives who want to take this nation back to the 19th century win it all.
The Koch brothers, Karl Rove, the rabid Republican right, CEOs and Wall Street titans who want to entrench their privileges and tax advantages -- all of them would like nothing better than for every progressive in America to throw in the towel.
Then America is entirely theirs.
The alternative to cynicism is to become more involved in politics. Help create a progressive force in this nation that grows into a movement that can't be stopped.
We almost had it last year in the Occupy movement. We had the arguments and the energy. What we lacked was organization and discipline.
I've spent years in Washington and I know nothing good happens there unless good people outside Washington are organized and mobilized to put pressure on Washington to make it happen.
This isn't new. In the election of 1936, a constituent approached FDR with a list of things she wanted him to do if reelected. "Ma'am," he said, "I'd like to do all those things. But if I'm reelected, you must make me."
We must make them.
I suggest a two-step plan.
Step one: Vote for Barack Obama for President and vote for every Democratic senator and representative in Congress. Get off your ass and make sure your friends and relatives do the same.
Step two: Starting Election Day, regardless of who's elected, commit at least three hours every week to political organizing and mobilizing. Connect with other progressives in your city and state. Help find and recruit new progressive candidates to run against Republicans in swing states, and against conservative Democrats. Support the members of the progressive caucus in Congress. Raise money. Raise a ruckus.
Make it our goal to reverse Citizens United, even if it takes a constitutional amendment. And have public financing of elections (including requiring the media to provide free political advertising as part of their commitment to public service).
Also break up the biggest banks and resurrect the Glass-Steagall Act.
Put a 2 percent surtax on wealth in excess of $3 million. And a one-tenth of 1 percent transaction tax on every financial transaction. And restore top tax rates to what they were before Ronald Reagan became president.
Use half this revenue to pay down the national debt and half to make sure every American has a world-class education.
Put a tax on carbon, and use the revenues to reduce or replace payroll taxes.
Have a single-payer health-care system that delivers care at far less cost than our current balkanized and inefficient one.
And much else.
You say it can't happen -- the system is too rotten.
It won't happen if you wallow in the comfort of your cynicism. But it will happen if you and others like you get fired up.
We've done it before.
I remember when progressives joined with African-Americans to get enacted the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts. I remember when progressives stopped the Vietnam War. When women finally got freedom of choice over their own bodies. When the Environmental Protection Act became law.
Who would have imagined two decades ago that America would elect an African-American as President of the United States? Who would have supposed gays and lesbians would begin to achieve equal marriage rights?
Of course we can take America back.
Stop complaining and start organizing.
And by all means, vote.
ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage," now available in paperback. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/if-you-succumb-to-cynicis_b_2017866.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications