via: huskerlaw
Daily Archives: July 2, 2012
Advice for the rest of the week
A prairie dog moment
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Rep. Paul Ryan: repeal health care law because those rights “come from nature and God”
The Raw Story reports that “Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is arguing that President Barack Obama’s health care reform law should be repealed because rights come from “nature and God,” not the government. During an interview on ABC, former Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy’s widow, Victoria Kennedy, told host George Stephanopoulos that the Supreme Court had made the right decision by upholding the Affordable Care Act. Ryan’s response:
“We’re going to repeal the entire law and then we’re going to advance patient-centered reforms that address these kinds of issues.I think this at the end of the day is a big philosophy difference. What Ms. Kennedy and others were saying is that this is a new government-granted right. We disagree with the notion that our rights come from government, that the government can now grant us and define our rights. Those are ours, they come from nature and God, according to the Declaration of Independence — a huge difference in philosophy.”
This man’s a loon in a political party filled with them. Let’s vote them out and take back our government. Enough with this foolishness.
Women of America are a little sad over Anderson Cooper’s news today
No surprise, it’s good he felt comfortable enough to come out, but still…
CNN’s Anderson Cooper: ‘The fact is, I’m gay’
The Daily Beast: CNN’s Anderson Cooper tells Andrew Sullivan, “The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud.”
(Photo via Anderson Cooper, CNN)
Source: andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com
And LOL:
What now, Teagelicals? Mitt Romney invested in a medical-waste firm that disposed of aborted fetuses
Mother Jones reports this morning that while investigating government documents, such as SEC filings, they’ve discovered that not only did Romney have a direct hand with the company Stericycle, but that he did not leave Bain Capital in 1999 as both the campaign and Bain constantly assert:
“Earlier this year, Mitt Romney nearly landed in a politically perilous controversy when theHuffington Post reported that in 1999 the GOP presidential candidate had been part of an investment group that invested $75 million in Stericycle, a medical-waste disposal firm that has been attacked by anti-abortion groups for disposing aborted fetuses collected from family planning clinics. Coming during the heat of the GOP primaries, as Romney tried to sell South Carolina Republicans on his pro-life bona fides, the revelation had the potential to damage the candidate’s reputation among values voters already suspicious of his shifting position on abortion.
“But Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney founded, tamped down the controversy. The company said Romney left the firm in February 1999 to run the troubled 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and likely had nothing to with the deal. The matter never became a campaign issue. But documents filed by Bain and Stericycle with the Securities and Exchange Commission—and obtained by Mother Jones—list Romney as an active participant in the investment. And this deal helped Stericycle, a company with a poor safety record, grow, while yielding tens of millions of dollars in profits for Romney and his partners. The documents—one of which was signed by Romney—also contradict the official account of Romney’s exit from Bain.”
This is a BFD for values voters (you’d think, they claim!) — but they shouldn’t be surprised when pure, vulture capitalism is what they choose to support: if you can make a profit on something — outsourcing American jobs to China, offshoring your American money into foreign bank accounts to avoid taxes, or disposal of aborted fetuses, that’s the way America works. Capitalism! Profit! Romney is a savvy businessman! Job creators!
If it turns out that this isn’t going to be a problem for the Christian fundamentalists, let’s not hear another word about a woman’s LEGAL freedom of choice. Read the rest…
Found image of ‘Stericycle’ in a Google image search.
So stupid it hurts: Republicans’ claim that the ACA mandate is the “biggest tax increase in history”
Kevin Drum discusses the stupidity being thrown around by the Republican Party since the Supreme Court’s ruling on Affordable Care last week:
“Democrats have long insisted that Obamacare’s penalty for not buying health insurance isn’t a tax, but on Thursday the Supreme Court upheld it on the grounds that it was a tax. J’accuse! Or, as America’s Bard of the Frozen North tweeted, “Obama lies, freedom dies.”
“This is so stupid it hurts. But Josh Marshall says that what comes next is even more brain dead:
“Republicans are now saying it’s the ‘biggest tax increase in history’ — either of America or the universe of whatever. But this is demonstrably false. The Congressional Budget Office says the mandate penalty will raise $27 billion between 2012 and 2021. $27 billion over a decade. Anybody who cares to can do the math. But if you want to call it a ‘tax increase’ — which is debatable — it’s clearly one of tiniest ones in history.”
“Let’s be fair: When Republicans talk about ACA’s tax increases, most of them are talking about all the taxes in the bill, not just the penalty. But they’re still off base. There have been 15 tax increases of significant size since 1950, and Jerry Tempalski, a tax analyst in the Treasury Department, has estimated the size of all of them as a percentage of GDP. Tempalski hasn’t estimated the eventual size of ACA, but PolitiFact took a crack at it using the same methodology, and they figure that ACA amounts to a tax increase of 0.49% of GDP seven years from now. That places it tenth on the list.”
REAGAN’S TAX INCREASE IN 1982 WAS BIGGER! The GOP is fully aware that their base will never read these facts on Drudge or Breitbart or see them on Fox Entertainment — so the lies will continue as planned.
Satan thinks Scientology is ‘creepy’ and ‘possibly even evil’
The Raw Story: “Media mogul Rupert Murdoch weighed in on the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes divorce story Sunday, saying he thinks Scientologists are “creepy” and possibly even evil.”
Watch Katie Holmes and Scientology story develop. Something creepy, maybe even evil, about these people.—
Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) July 01, 2012
…
“[...] Murdoch’s Scientology comment generated a surge of Twitter traffic, prompting another tweet: “Since Scientology tweet hundreds of attacks. Expect they will increase and get worse and maybe threatening.
““Still stick to my story,” he added.
“A short time after his Scientology tweet, Murdoch was asked his views on Mormonism — in the spotlight currently as Mormon Mitt Romney takes on President Barack Obama for the White House.
““Mormonism a mystery to me, but Mormons certainly not evil,” the News Corp tycoon replied.”
