January 5, 2014

A poll shows there is going to be a backlash for this:

Poll: Congress Risks Voter Backlash For Letting Unemployment Benefits Expire

to Mr. Bill:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101681887

We must not forget the multipler effect from this income source being cut off through no fauilt of the unemployed. There are spouses, children, extended family, schools, mortgages that will not be paid and they will be shoved onto already straining state budgets.

Even though some red states have cut them off there, too. Obviously, they are not welcome in the states they and their families live in. The GOP wants the people to be as they were in the Great Depression.

Homeless, desperate, dying and moving from place to place. Their local communities and belongings sold on the auction block to the vultures who voted for the GOP to do this.

We can do better.

January 5, 2014

Not '"creating little monsters" more concerned with their careers than serving people' should be

applied to all professions. Imagine a world where these arrogant Christian-ists did this?



Ryan, Rand, Gingrich, Boehner and the rest would gag and run away before they humbled themselves to admit they are no better than 'the least among us.'

If I was out protesting them, I'd toss this picture in their face. They are not moral or humane guides.

January 5, 2014

Keep in mind this is not the coldest it's EVER been, just in recent memory.

I remember seeing news reports of Detroit and Chicago with wind chill factors of a hundred below zero about 40 years ago. I could not imagine living there, but they were ready for it.;.

Yes, people died, just as they did in the summers there, too. But over all, things were more organized then.

A few summers ago this area had ambulances running up and down the streets all day and night because of the heat. Most people don't have air conditioning. The city set up cooling centers to take care of those who couldn't handle the heat.

But we are well prepared for the cold, even though we don't have the long cold spells like people are getting now in most of the country...

A few years ago many people were bousebound due to a lot of snow, unable to get around. We are told to be prepared at all times to take care of ourselves if everything quits. I was indoors for 3 weeks, stocked up and lucky to have power.

Of course, some people have to go places, and then it's an adventure. Here's a local scene. Turn the sound all the way up!

January 5, 2014

This will not end well...

Actor Steven Seagal Trains Arizona Posse On School Security

FOUNTAIN HILLS, Arizona (Reuters) - Action film star Steven Seagal, who racks up big body counts in his on-screen battles with bad guys, took on a new role on Saturday, training posse volunteers for controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio in how to use guns to protect schools in shooting incidents.

Arpaio, who styles himself as "America's Toughest Sheriff," enlisted Seagal to train his Maricopa County posse members at a school in Fountain Hills, a suburb northeast of Phoenix, with children used as stand-ins for scared students.

Seagal, a burly martial arts expert turned actor, guided 48 volunteers through various aspects of responding to a shooting, including room-to-room searches, and critiqued their work.

"I am here to try to teach the posse firearms and martial arts to try to help them learn how to respond quicker and help protect our children," Seagal said...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-rt-us-usa-arizona-seagalbre91901j-20130209,0,6951242.story

to Purveyor:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022344725

Turning America into a war zone, with armed men controlling every move.

What kind of freedom is that?

January 5, 2014

Increasing the Happiness Index all around. And for those who are stuck on the website, tell them how

Social Security worked just fine without a website for SIXTY YEARS. They know that's TRUE.

Most don't know that lives we saved from the passage of the ACA in 2010:

The truth about the ACA, from 2010! What media refused to show!

President Obama Makes Surprise Call To Gail O'Brien

Uploaded on Sep 22, 2010

President Obama made a surprise call yesterday to Gail O'Brien, a woman in Keene, NH, who is benefiting from the Affordable Care Act, which was passed six months ago today. Gail was previously uninsured and diagnosed with high grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Thanks to the new law, Gail now has insurance through the new Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan that will pay for her treatments, and she is responding very well.

That was September 2010 before the midterms. Want to talk about conspiracy? What was on the air the entire year?

The Tea Party and their astroturf protests about the horrors of the ACA and Death Panels, etc. is what all the cable networks went with instead of telling the truth, giving Americans some information they could use...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/110219820

January 5, 2014

The focus needs to be on the work done, whoever's doing it. Criticism from either group is ego, not

serving the needy. I'm a secularist and think in terms of prevention. By government providing housing, employment, money to live on if unable to work or get a job and healthcare and delivering without shaming or discrimination. People deserve equal treatment under law

That's unconditional love and respect. I know believers, pagans and atheists who do this, and it's their focus. It's a waste for people to use their energy to attack each other when there is so much work that needs to be done.

Obama was quoted in a meeting with community activists years ago as he commended those in public and private service for the poor. He said there was 'a spirit of love' in blue states. Helping people, doing unto others as you would have done unto you, the Golden Rule.

Not arguing your experience. We don't need to be offended or give offense. Life is too short for that.

January 4, 2014

I was able to convert Parts A and B to a Part C plan for no premium. There are copays.

I was offered a $35 month to month dental that can be cancelled after expensive work is done at any time and then started up again. So I pay no monthly premium for drugs and $35 for dental. Period.

I pay $15 to see my doctor, and $50 for specialists, and these were the doctors I saw before getting this, so I have not lost my regular doctors. There is no deductible, the only thing that is capped is the number of visits for some of my doctors, some 6 times or 12 times a year for routine care.

My prescription costs range from $3 for generics to $10 for brand name, which drops back to $3 if the doctor insists on brand name as a necessity. I am going to transfer all my regular prescriptions to their mail program for which I will get instead of 30 days for $3, I will get 90 days for $3. It will arrive in the mail and I do not have to take time or use gas to get it. There is no charge for them sending it to me by mail.

I do not qualify for Medicaid. This is from straight Medicare. Any lab or special work is also kept within bounds by the Medicare rules and I am getting free coverage once a year for wellness checks and conditions that are chronic.

My start up with my doctor and getting the wellness lab and check over was well over $600 but all but $49 was paid for by Medicare or was written off.

I also did not use a website, as I am not good at that and checked with all my doctors in person to see what plans paid them. A friend and I drove to one of the October sign up meetings where the company I picked then answered my questions and kept me within my budget.

I insisted that I could not pay more than what I was already paying for Parts A and B. Other than the dental, there is no charge, and I can drop the dental. Eye care is included with the plan, as well as hearing aids.

Then their agent at the meeting and at my home, went through their system and found that all my doctors, my dentist, my chiropractor, my podiatrist and the area with the doctor clinics I wanted to go to were covered.

I asked them to come out to my home and they did with my friend there to witness what I was signing on for. They gave me 90 days to back out of it.

They also have a plan to help those at home if needed even though I do not have home care insurance or long-term care. I do not qualify for Medicaid that covers that, eye glasses and dental.

But I also live in a blue state and our governor ran on implementing the ACA. It increased revenue for the doctors, hospitals and clinics as it is funded by the ACA and not affected by capricious rightwing legislators which had made our state's Medicaid program hard to get help from.

Many people are getting healthcare that had none before, and others are getting more care that they didn't have before.

Although as I said I do not qualify for the ACA Medicaid expansion, I am glad to see that those who had no coverage now get it and will be healthier. My health is getting better, too.

I bet you can get the same thing I did. Good luck getting what you need.

January 4, 2014

Since I was campaigning for it and the voting age amendment, I paid attention. Some thought that

Title IX - Gender Equity in Education, already guaranteed much of what was needed. But it has not fully lived up to the dream:

https://www.aclu.org/title-ix-gender-equity-education

Good news at the ERA link, though...

Removal of deadline from the 1972 version of ERA[edit]

On March 8, 2011, the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day, Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced legislation (H.J.Res. 47) to remove the Congressionally-imposed deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.[46] Bill co-sponsors include Representatives Robert Andrews (D-NJ), Jackie Speier (D-CA), Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL).[47] On March 22, 2012, the 40th anniversary of ERA's congressional approval, Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD) introduced (S.J. Res. 39)--which is worded with slight differences from Representative Baldwin's (H.J. Res. 47). Senator Cardin was joined by ten other Senators who added their names to the Senate Joint Resolution.[citation needed]

On February 24, 2013, the New Mexico House of Representatives adopted House Memorial 7 asking, also, that the Congressionally-imposed deadline for ERA ratification be removed. House Memorial 7 was officially received by the U.S. House of Representatives on April 25, 2013, and was referred to the House's Committee on the Judiciary, as noted in the Congressional Record.[citation needed]

113th Congress[edit]

The 113th Congress has a record number of women. On March 5, 2013, the ERA was reintroduced as S. J. RES. 10[48] by Senator Bob Menendez.[49]

All the more reason to GOTV in 2014 and get it passed all through the states. Note, Texas ratified and did not rescind its vote for the ERA. Wendy may or may not be helped by what Congress has been offered.

We've seen how very regressive the 2010 elections turned out to be. We must vote those who faught VAWA, The ACA with its gender neutral rules and the Lily Ledbetter Act, out of office. In these tumultous days we must secure this before other factors come into play to defeat us.

January 4, 2014

What a different world it would be, if only...

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution designed to guarantee equal rights for women.

The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time. In 1972, it passed both houses of Congress and went to the state legislatures for ratification.

The ERA failed to receive the requisite number of ratifications (38) before the final deadline mandated by Congress of June 30, 1982, and so it was not adopted.

Full Text:

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.[1][2]

There is a lot more at the link and information about some surprising opposition to the Amendment:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Rights_Amendment

January 4, 2014

I'm in the mood to see how this goes this time. Pretty rough going last year. Now it's 2014:

Don't worry, I won't say anything. Just hope this one will be more peaeeful.