October 29, 2016

Great OP ED: Toomey Ducks for Cover

This is from Tony Norman of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

The Sitting Senator Ducks for Cover

"As of Thursday, Sen. Pat Toomey still refused to say what he thought of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and whether he continues to support him."

"Swept into office with the Tea Party wave of 2010, Mr. Toomey, who was a “true believer” back when it was politically expedient to sound as crazy as possible, now wants to appear more moderate than the standard-bearer of his party. If he can do so without antagonizing the pitchfork and torches crowd that brung him to the dance in the first place, that would be his preference."

"Mr. Toomey understands that his reticence to go on the record about whether he supports Mr. Trump is the kind of political cowardice that doesn’t even pretend to be subtle. It’s unconscionable that less than two weeks before Pennsylvanians go to the polls, our junior senator continues to maintain the fiction that he’s still weighing the pros and cons of Mr. Trump’s candidacy."

<snip>

"Pennsylvanians aren’t stupid. We know Mr. Toomey isn’t in a position to endorse Hillary Clinton, but that doesn’t mean he’s obligated to endorse the Republican nominee out of some misguided sense of party loyalty. You can’t “love the sinner, but hate the sin” when it comes to Donald Trump."

Read more at : http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/tony-norman/2016/10/28/Tony-Norman-The-sitting-senator-ducks-for-cover/stories/201610280135

August 25, 2016

If You Are on Medicare or Medicaid, You're Ineligible for the Epi-Pen Savings Card.

https://www.activatethecard.com/epipen/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=epi%20pen%20coupon_exact&utm_content=epipen%20cost&utm_campaign=epipen%202015%20-%20branded&gclid=CODSsM_E3c4CFVcRNwodRngAnQ&gclsrc=ds

This happens all the time with so-called Pharmaceutical Coupon Cards. If you're on Medicare, you cannot use them. It sucks. What are those people supposed to do?

Mylan is saying they're lowering the price of Epi-Pens? Huh-uh. They are just perpetuating the scam.

July 7, 2016

Keith Rothfus (PA-12) Daily Kos "Crazy Republican of the Day"

July 4 Edition

“Crazy/Republican of the Day” is proud to prevent our 505th original profile today, and we’ll be talking about Keith Rothfus, the U.S. House Representative for Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional District who was first elected in 2012, and is currently serving in his second term in office after winning by almost 20 points in the 2014 elections. While his name might not jump out compared to some of the wilder Tea Party Republicans floating around the past few years, Rothfus has still joined in some of the more extreme partisan efforts of his cohorts, like say voting for the 2013 Government Shutdown, and then when the time came to reopen the government, voting to keep it closed. You might not get many quotes out of Rothfus that make him trend on social media, but when you look at his record and issue stances, he still adamantly opposes same sex marriage, wants to privatize Social Security, and wants to restrict women’s reproductive ways in as many ways as can be thought of.

<snip>

"Then there’s the matter of Rothfus’ voting record:

January 15th, 2013: Keith Rothfus votes against disaster relief funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy.

February 28th, 2013: Rep. Rothfus votes against the new version of the Violence Against Women Act.

June 19th, 2013: Rothfus votes against restoring $20.5 billion towards the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.

September 30th, 2013: Rep. Rothfus voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown. When the time came to vote to re-open the federal government, Rothfus voted to keep it closed.

Feb 26th, 2014: Keith Rothfus goes “all in” on the faux-scandal surrounding the IRS researching SuperPACs by co-sponsoring and voting for the “Stop the Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act”. (Note: No one was actually found to be doing this after the investigation of the IRS was complete.)

July 10th, 2014: Rothfus votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.

January 22nd, 2015: An anti-abortion bill, HR 7, was moving through the House, and was halted because even some members of the GOP were put off by the language in the bill regarding its definition of rape. Keith Rothfus, however, had no problem with that, and voted for it anyway.

February 3rd, 2015: Rep. Rothfus co-sponsors and votes for the 60th Republican attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act. This in spite of the fact that the law is not just working, but better than experts predicted.

March 3rd, 2015: Rothfus votes against funding the Department of Homeland Security as part of a Republican protest of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration.

May 13th, 2015: Keith Rothfus co-sponsors and votes for HR 36, a 20 week abortion ban.

September 11th, 2015: Rothfus votes against the United States’ nuclear treaty with Iran.

September 18th, 2015: Rep. Rothfus co-sponsors and votes for the bill created by House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, based on highly edited “sting” videos submitted by a Pro-Life advocacy group that have been repeatedly debunked by investigators.

November 19th, 2015: Rothfus co-sponsors and votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks. One terrorist had a fake passport of a member of Assad’s army, apparently to create a false trail to help in their escape, or hoping that the attacks would be blamed on Syrian refugees, and the governments of nations like France and the United States would fall for it and not allow refugees to escape ISIS abroad. And… the Congressman fell for it.

February 2nd, 2016: Keith Rothfus votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).

May 19th, 2016: Rep. Rothfus votes against House Amendment 1079, which would have prohibited the use of federal funds for discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. So if you were wondering, yes, he’s pro-discrimination, apparently."

Read more of this Despicable Behavior at:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/07/04/1544943/-CSGOPOTD-Keith-Rothfus

Folks, this guy actually moved his family of 8 into District 12 after it was gerrymandered specifically for him (he'd run for the seat before and lost). Rothfus is one of these anti-government Tea Party types who strangely has worked quite a bit for the U.S. Government, first for Pres. George W. Bush's Faith-Based Initiatives, then for the Dept. of Homeland Security, and now representing the tailor-made-for-him PA-12 since 2012.

The Democrats have an amazing candidate running against Do-Nothing Rothfus. Her name is Erin McClelland. Here are links to her website and Facebook page:

http://www.erinforpa.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ErinforPA/

Please consider giving Erin McClelland's campaign a look. She's a winner. Keith Rothfus has ALL of the WRONG ideas.

April 7, 2016

Hillary Clinton Comforts Family of Teen Supporter Who Died Last Week

"The family of Caileigh McDowell shared a private moment with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton before her rally Wednesday evening at Carnegie Mellon University."

"Caileigh, 17, a staunch Clinton supporter, died Saturday of complications from Crohn's disease. She lived in Forest Hills and attended Woodland Hills High School."

"Family members spent 15 minutes with the former secretary of State in a room at CMU, said Caileigh's aunt Lynn Banaszak, who works as executive director of the Disruptive Health Technology Institute at CMU."

“She was very touched and very compassionate about the enormity of the loss to our family,” said Banaszak, who was in the meeting with Caileigh's parents, younger brother and others. “We explained how bittersweet it was that we were standing with her without our Caileigh, who admired her so much.”

The story of Caileigh, who by all accounts was an amazing young woman, has hit the Pittsburgh area hard. She couldn't wait to turn 18 and vote for Hillary Clinton. There are some nice pics at the link:

http://triblive.com/news/adminpage/10266122-74/caileigh-banaszak-clinton