Saturday, August 31, 2013

PERRspectives: Health Insurance "Coverage Gap" Coming to a Red State Near You

PERRspectives: Health Insurance "Coverage Gap" Coming to a Red State Near You
"The resulting Republican body count is staggering. Thanks to the GOP's rejection of Medicaid expansion, 1.3 million people in Texas, 1 million in Florida, 534,000 in Georgia and 267,000 in Missouri will be ensnared in the coverage gap.
Here's why."

Friday, August 30, 2013

In Effort To Woo Female Voters, Mitch McConnell Touts Women’s Law He Voted Against

In Effort To Woo Female Voters, Mitch McConnell Touts Women’s Law He Voted Against: A press release distributed by Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) campaign at a "Women for Team Mitch" event brags about the Senate Minority Leader's support for VAWA, even though McConnell voted against the measure in 1994, 2012, and 2013.

Leaderless party endures humiliating week

Leaderless party endures humiliating week
"Republicans' flailing spectacle during the March on Washington anniversary displayed a party with no direction"

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Judge Sparks Protests After Sentencing 14-Year-Old Girl’s Rapist To Just 30 Days In Prison

Judge Sparks Protests After Sentencing 14-Year-Old Girl’s Rapist To Just 30 Days In Prison: He also said the teen victim was acting "older than her chronological age" and "as much in control" of the situation as her rapist. Now, more than 30,000 people are calling for his resignation.

A party full of rodeo clowns: GOP flips the bird to racial justice

A party full of rodeo clowns: GOP flips the bird to racial justice
"The fact that no leading Republican bothered to attend the 50thanniversary commemoration shows how far to the right they’ve moved on race. It’s not just that they’ve thrown in the towel when it comes to appealing to black voters. They also don’t think it’s worth it to make an extra effort to appeal to white voters who flinch at racism."

After Stacking Its Medical Board Full Of Anti-Choice Members, Iowa Prepares To Limit Abortion Access

After Stacking Its Medical Board Full Of Anti-Choice Members, Iowa Prepares To Limit Abortion Access: Iowa's Republican governor replaced every single member of the state's supposedly nonpartisan medical board with an anti-abortion activist. That's having exactly its intended effect.

On the Anniversary of the March on Washington, a New Fight for Voting Rights | The Nation

On the Anniversary of the March on Washington, a New Fight for Voting Rights | The Nation
"In 2013, there’s a black president, but the right to vote is under the most sustained attack—in the states and the courts—since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965."

Every Republican That Was Asked Refused to Attend March On Washington Event

www.politicususa.com/2013/08/29/john-boehner-eric-cantor-refused-speak.html
"By refusing to even show up, Republicans sent the message to the country that only one party cares about inclusion and diversity, and it isn’t them. Their decision wasn’t just bad optics. It was bad politics.
Most of all, it was a completely unnecessary snub of the King family, and Martin Luther King’s legacy. The message has been effectively sent that Republicans don’t care about civil rights, equality, and inclusiveness.
Good luck running on that platform in 2016."

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Faced With Budget Cuts, 99.5 Percent Of Teachers Spend Their Own Money On Supplies

Faced With Budget Cuts, 99.5 Percent Of Teachers Spend Their Own Money On Supplies: Last year, virtually every teacher in America spent an average of $485 on school supplies like books, furniture, printer ink, and copy paper.

Five Myths About Obamacare You Shouldn’t Believe

Five Myths About Obamacare You Shouldn’t Believe: Separate the facts from the fiction about the upcoming implementation of the health reform law.

Fox News Feels The Hate From Young Viewers As Ratings Plummet to a 12 Year Low

www.politicususa.com/2013/08/27/fox-news-feels-hate-young-viewers-ratings-plummet-12-year.html
"Younger viewers (age 25-54) are avoiding Fox News like the plague. The reason why younger viewers don’t watch Fox mirrors the struggles of the Republican Party. Instead of embracing issues that matter to younger people, Fox News and the Republican Party have taken positions of opposition. It doesn’t matter how young the Fox News on air talent gets, as long as they cater to the old while male base of the Republican Party, younger people will not tune in." And it's the same trouble for the party on a national level. Losing large voting blocks like women and minorities as well the very large next generation. A dying party filled with ignorance, racism and hate is not attractive to most voters and is a real turnoff to young people.

BuzzFeed Is Taking Trolling to a New Level by Pandering to Right-Wing Nuts | Alternet

BuzzFeed Is Taking Trolling to a New Level by Pandering to Right-Wing Nuts | Alternet
"Buzzfeed, a favorite site of Millennials and liberals, found itself at the center of the buzz for all the wrong reasons this past weekend. Personhood USA, a conservative anti- abortion propaganda group, published for free a listicle bashing Planned Parenthood under Buzzfeed's relatively new "Community" section. Rather than issue an apology, Buzzfeed insists their new Community section is an open platform where anything goes, even posts that alienate their biggest supporters or violate guidelines. Big mistake."

Fox News expert: 'Women Have the Breasts' so Health Care Should Cost More Than Men

Fox News expert: 'Women Have the Breasts' so Health Care Should Cost More Than Men
"A Fox News medical expert on Tuesday argued that President Barack Obama's administration was wrong to force gender equality for health insurance rates because men "only have the prostate," while women "have the breasts, they have the ovaries"."

BuzzFeed Publishes Anti-Planned Parenthood ‘Listicle’ From Radical Personhood Group

BuzzFeed Publishes Anti-Planned Parenthood ‘Listicle’ From Radical Personhood Group:
"The list detailed some of the most controversial “sting operations” carried out at Planned Parenthoods around the country, though all of the “outrageous things” on the list have been addressed by the organization, or debunked."

Celebrate Women's Equality Day – Support Equal Pay Today | Common Dreams

Celebrate Women's Equality Day – Support Equal Pay Today | Common Dreams
"On this Women's Equality Day - the anniversary of the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote - I'm struck by all the ways in which women have yet to attain equality."

Killing Obamacare Is Killing The Republican Party

Killing Obamacare Is Killing The Republican Party:
"Americans willing to directly identify with the Republican Party is reaching historic lows. The Pollster.com rolling average of GOP party identification now stands at 22 percent and has been declining fairly steadily for the last several years."

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Colin Powell On Republican Voting Restrictions: ‘It’s Going To Backfire’

Colin Powell On Republican Voting Restrictions: ‘It’s Going To Backfire’:
"On Face the Nation this Sunday, Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under President George W. Bush, warned his fellow Republicans that the continuing push to restrict voting rights is going to “backfire” and harm the Republican Party"

13 Lies GMO Labeling Opponents Are Pushing to Keep People in the Dark | Alternet

13 Lies GMO Labeling Opponents Are Pushing to Keep People in the Dark | Alternet
"Like bad robots, they’re spitting out the same old, tired lies, designed to scare voters into voting against their own best interests. Here's the truth behind their lies."

Thousands Converge in DC for New March on Washington | Common Dreams

Thousands Converge in DC for New March on Washington | Common Dreams
"Thousands gathered in the cool morning at Washington DC's national mall hours ahead of a planned new 'March on Washington' that marks the 50 year anniversary of Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech."

Plutocrats' New Pitch: Let Us Rob You Now So You Can Plan Ahead for Poverty | Alternet

Plutocrats' New Pitch: Let Us Rob You Now So You Can Plan Ahead for Poverty | Alternet
"Pete Peterson & Co. kindly want to take your Social Security away to prevent you from imagining a dignified future."

Raising The Minimum Wage Is A Political Goldmine

Raising The Minimum Wage Is A Political Goldmine: An issue that is hugely popular, fits perfectly into the progressive agenda, appeals to the white working class, and splits the Republican party.

Ireland Has Performed Its First-Ever Legal Abortion, And It Saved A Dying Woman’s Life

Ireland Has Performed Its First-Ever Legal Abortion, And It Saved A Dying Woman’s Life: After Savita's tragic death, reproductive rights activists pressured Ireland to loosen its total abortion ban. That policy change has already prevented another woman like Savita from dying.

OOPS: Obamacare Opponent Is Very Impressed With The Law He Hates So Much

OOPS: Obamacare Opponent Is Very Impressed With The Law He Hates So Much:
"Over 75 percent of respondents like the law’s insurance subsidies; 80 percent favor the statewide insurance marketplaces; a staggering 88 percent approve of the small business tax credits to help pay for employees’ health coverage.
But decidedly fewer Americans realize that these are all things the health law actually does"

Colin Powell Takes North Carolina GOP To Task On Voter Suppression

Colin Powell Takes North Carolina GOP To Task On Voter Suppression
"Rachel Maddow's brilliant exposé of Republican voter suppression efforts in North Carolina Wednesday night set the stage for an interesting moment on Thursday morning when Colin Powell laid the smackdown on Governor Pat McCrory and North Carolina Republicans' efforts to suppress voting."

Thursday, August 22, 2013

The Vast Majority Of The New Abortion Restrictions Enacted This Year Don’t Include A Rape Exception

The Vast Majority Of The New Abortion Restrictions Enacted This Year Don’t Include A Rape Exception: Three-fourths of Americans believe that rape victims should have legal access to abortion services. But elected officials aren't enacting policies in line with that.

REPORT: American Workers Have Seen A ‘Lost Decade’ In Wage Growth

REPORT: American Workers Have Seen A ‘Lost Decade’ In Wage Growth:
"policies that have benefited consumers through lower prices – “globalization, deregulation, weaker unions, and lower labor standards such as a weaker minimum wage” – have destroyed the virtuous capitalist cycle in which consumers and workers are both supposed to benefit from greater output."

PERRspectives: Republican Parents Vote for Obamacare with Their Wallets

PERRspectives: Republican Parents Vote for Obamacare with Their Wallets
"Over the last few weeks, Republicans have been waging a very determined--and even more deceptive--campaign to scare the bejesus out of uninsured young adults so important to the success of the Affordable Care Act. But while the conservative commentariat has been issuing dire warnings about the so-called "Young Invincibles," their parents have quietly added millions of them to their family insurance plans, all thanks to Obamacare."

West Virginia’s Attorney General Launches Politically-Motivated Investigation Into Abortion Clinics

West Virginia’s Attorney General Launches Politically-Motivated Investigation Into Abortion Clinics: Reproductive rights activists are fighting back against what they say is a coordinated attack against legal abortion providers in the state.

More Louisiana Republicans Blame President Obama For Hurricane Katrina Response Than Bush

More Louisiana Republicans Blame President Obama For Hurricane Katrina Response Than Bush:
Looks like republicans in Louisiana need to listen to their Gov. Bobby Jindal when he asked them to stop being the "stupid party".

GOP-commissioned report: Abortion is incredibly safe, already highly regulated

GOP-commissioned report: Abortion is incredibly safe, already highly regulated
"A GOP "fishing expedition" on abortion providers in the U.S. confirms what we already knew: abortion is very safe"

Republicans Claim that America Can No Longer Afford Compromise and Bipartisanship

www.politicususa.com/2013/08/20/republicans-claim-american-longer-afford-compromise-bipartisanship.html
"The outright rejection of compromise cost Americans a million jobs and the government $19 billion during the debt limit crisis in 2011 that also set the harsh 10-year sequester in motion, and the same extremists are ramping up to sabotage the government again."

PERRspectives: Beware the Red State Suckers!

PERRspectives: Beware the Red State Suckers!
"But if Republicans think things are bad now, just wait until this time next year. As millions of people in states like Texas, Florida and North Carolina see their friends and relatives in places like Oregon, New York and Colorado with health insurance coverage they themselves lack, there could be hell to pay for the GOP obstructionists who played them for suckers."

Will the American Right Kill Us All? | Common Dreams

Will the American Right Kill Us All? | Common Dreams
"It is dangerous to cede the historical reality to well-funded right-wing “historians” who are dispatched back in time by the Koch Brothers and their allies to cherry-pick a few quotes here and there to distort what the key Framers were actually doing with the Constitution, i.e. they were creating a vibrant federal government that would have the flexibility to address the country’s “general Welfare” then and in the future."

The Remarkable Slowdown In Health Care Costs Since The Passage Of Obamacare

The Remarkable Slowdown In Health Care Costs Since The Passage Of Obamacare: A new survey of health care premiums for employer-sponsored health care coverage shows that health care inflation is slowing, undermining critics' predictions that costs would skyrocket in the aftermath of the Affordable Care Act.

Top Ten Protester Signs From North Carolina’s ‘Moral Monday’ On The Road

Top Ten Protester Signs From North Carolina’s ‘Moral Monday’ On The Road: North Carolinians fed up with a raft of new sharply-conservative policies that would hurt the poor, women, minorities, and the environment are expanding their weekly 'Moral Monday' protests to legislators' home districts around the state.

The Vast Majority Of The New Abortion Restrictions Enacted This Year Don’t Include A Rape Exception

The Vast Majority Of The New Abortion Restrictions Enacted This Year Don’t Include A Rape Exception: Three-fourths of Americans believe that rape victims should have legal access to abortion services. But elected officials aren't enacting policies in line with that.

Koch-Backed Group Rallies To Oppose Extending Health Care To Low-Income Virginians

Koch-Backed Group Rallies To Oppose Extending Health Care To Low-Income Virginians:
"Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, sponsored a rally on Monday to stand up against extending Medicaid coverage to nearly 400,000 low-income Virginia residents."

GOP prepares to self-destruct over nonsense

GOP prepares to self-destruct over nonsense
"The conservative movement seems dead-set on tearing itself apart over "defunding Obamacare," an imaginary gimmick"

Pennsylvania Governor Hires Birther Tea Party Operative As New Tax Liaison

Pennsylvania Governor Hires Birther Tea Party Operative As New Tax Liaison: Gov. Tom Corbett (R-PA) has been called one of the nation's worst governors for his record of turning state government into "a favor mill for campaign supporters." This month, he selected Tea Party operative Ana Puig to be legislative liaison for his Pennsylvania Department of Revenue.

How Low Can You Get: The Minimum Wage Scam | Common Dreams

How Low Can You Get: The Minimum Wage Scam | Common Dreams
"You'd think the exceptionally low minimum-wage – $7.25 an hour – would be the shame of a country like the United States that prides itself on its economic leadership. Half of minimum-wage jobs are held by adults over 25 years old, and asking adults to live on $7.25, or $14,500 a year, doesn't leave them with enough to rent an apartment, commute to work, raise a child and participate in society in any meaningful way."

Monday, August 19, 2013

Tea Party Goes Wild As Child's Hopes Crushed

Tea Party Goes Wild As Child's Hopes Crushed
"The 200 who whooped and hollered at the prospect of a child losing her father should make sure they never, ever, ever dare to utter the word "family" and "values" in the same sentence ever again.
The day voters grind these tea party jerks into oblivion cannot come soon enough."

How Libertarian-Style Capitalism Killed My Father and My Best Friends | Alternet

How Libertarian-Style Capitalism Killed My Father and My Best Friends | Alternet
"When a nation, like the United States, uses the libertarian way, it allows corporations to send whatever products they want into the marketplace, regardless of how dangerous those products are. The theory is that once people notice how deadly something is, they will stop buying it and the "free-market" will magically correct itself."

Philly Public Schools: Blueprint for Destruction

Philly Public Schools: Blueprint for Destruction
"Philadelphia and Detroit are the victims of a manufactured crisis, created in order to serve billionaires' desires to privatize and profitize public education."

Women Are Increasingly Being Forced To Cross State Lines To Get An Abortion

Women Are Increasingly Being Forced To Cross State Lines To Get An Abortion: Thanks to a mounting pile of harsh state-level restrictions, more women are being forced to cross borders to get the reproductive health care they need.

“Indescribably insane”: A public school system from hell

“Indescribably insane”: A public school system from hell
"Want to see a public school system in its death throes? Look no further than Philadelphia. There, the school district is facing end times, with teachers, parents and students staring into the abyss created by a state intent on destroying public education."

Nine Term North Carolina Senator Resigns To Fight New Voter Suppression Law

Nine Term North Carolina Senator Resigns To Fight New Voter Suppression Law: In a message posted on her website, former NC State Sen. Ellie Kinnaird (D) wrote that a major focus of her post-legislative work will be “a grass-roots project to make sure everyone in the state has a proper voter ID so that no votes are denied, even though” a recently enacted voter suppression law “is aimed at exactly that – repressing the vote.”

About A Third Of Women Have Experienced Discrimination In The Workplace

About A Third Of Women Have Experienced Discrimination In The Workplace:
"Nearly 30 percent of women report experiencing discrimination in the workplace, according to new poll data from the Center for American Progress and Elle Magazine released on Monday."

Domestic Violence Victims Face Choice Between Calling Police Or Staying In Housing

Domestic Violence Victims Face Choice Between Calling Police Or Staying In Housing: Domestic violence victims can be evicted if they call the police too many times, putting many in an impossible situation.

8 Reasons Charles Koch is the Scariest Man in America | Alternet

8 Reasons Charles Koch is the Scariest Man in America | Alternet
"Scary because he  claims "We don't have the power to coerce anybody" while providing massive  funding to organizations that attack public education, social programs, worker salaries, business regulations, and the environment."

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Moral Monday Marches on with Dr. King in Mind | Common Dreams

Moral Monday Marches on with Dr. King in Mind | Common Dreams
"While North Carolina lawmakers have adjourned for the year, the Moral Monday movement marches on, with plans underway to hold rallies across the state this month protesting the legislature's far-right turn."

Will Other Red States Follow North Carolina’s Targeting Of Student Voters? | Alternet

Will Other Red States Follow North Carolina’s Targeting Of Student Voters? | Alternet
"Barriers to student voting are nothing new, but these North Carolina attacks are signs of what the GOP wants to do nationally, especially in states where it is the political majority. Its strategy is to complicate voting by slices of society presumed to lean Democratic, whether non-whites, the poor or students."

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Social Security Is the Only Reason Most Americans Can Afford to Retire | Economic Policy Institute

Social Security Is the Only Reason Most Americans Can Afford to Retire | Economic Policy Institute
"As we celebrate the 78th birthday of Social Security today, it’s worth noting the vital role the program continues to play in Americans’ retirement security."