Budget Deficit, System Comlexity Forces
California To Look To Other States For Health Care Innovations

post from ThinkProgress on 08 July 2011 01:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

California was one of the first states to pass legislation establishing the exchanges that are part of the Affordable Care Act, but now progress has stalled as state officials keep “a keen eye out to see what develops in other parts of the country” and raise concerns about how the state’s “deep budget deficit” could effect implementation. Still, the state has a good jump in two areas.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2011/07/08/263929/budget-deficit-system-comlexity
-forces-california-looks-to-other-states-for-health-care-innovations/

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Bernie Sanders: Senators Have Told Me If Obama
Sends A ‘Piece Of Crap’ Debt Deal To Us, We’ll Defeat It

post from ThinkProgress on 08 July 2011 01:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

The Washington Post set off a political firestorm earlier this week when it reported that President Obama will reportedly be seeking changes to Social Security as part of a wider debt ceiling deal with Congress.

This morning, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-VT) hosted a press call with reporters about their opposition to including Social Security and Medicare in debt ceiling negotiations. ThinkProgress asked Sanders if he thinks including regressive cuts to these programs in a debt ceiling deal would hurt Obama politically and what tactics he would be willing to use to stop such a deal. He said that including such cuts would “obviously” hurt President Obama in the next election and that he would do “everything” that he can to defeat such a package.

At another point in the call, a Washington Post reporter asked Sanders if he’s convinced that a debt deal that includes Social Security would be unable to pass the Senate. Sanders responded by saying that senators have told him that they are not willing to vote for a “piece of crap” deal and that the White House is in for a “serious surprise” if it expects the Senate to approve any package it hands down:

REPORTER: In your view, if this debt limit deal includes any changes in Social Security, are you convinced that that will not be able to pass the Senate?
SANDERS: Again, it’s hard for us to talk about 99 other people. But I think there really is a disconnect, and I think Sheldon made this point when he was speaking, between what the White House is doing and rest of the Senate. What I can say is that I have heard, including from people that you might not expect to hear it from, that if they bring from the Senate a piece of crap which really comes down heavy on working families, and the elderly, and the sick, and the children, and they expect me to matter of factly vote for it, they have another thing coming. So I think the White House is for a serious surpise if they think everybody in the Democratic caucus is going to willy nilly follow the President and vote for anything he brings forth.

Listen to it:

A recent Pew poll found that 60 percent of Americans believe it is more important to keep Social Security and Medicare benefits intact than to reduce the deficit.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/07/08/263936/sanders-piece-crap-defeat/

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Beijing/Shanghai HSR Link Leads To $175 Drop In
Airfare

post from ThinkProgress on 08 July 2011 01:00:02 PM. © ThinkProgress

Via James Fallows, a chart of airfare between Beijing and Shanghai:

Truncating the Y-axis in this way exaggerates the impact of the new high-speed rail link, but it’s still there. Over the medium term, the likely impact is fewer daily flights between Beijing and Shanghai. This is, I think, one of the most undersold benefits of high-speed rail construction. Space at airports is scarce. And for many purposes ? flying from Beijing to Tokyo, or from Shanghai to Seoul ? air travel is absolutely indispensable. But absent high-speed rail, the objective incentives point toward the use of a lot of runway space for things like flights from Seattle to Portland or Philadelphia to Boston. Even mid-speed rail has a beneficial impact on the demand for DC-NYC and NYC-Boston air travel. What’s more, obviously, the train makes intermediate stops so the existence of the DC-NYC train route makes it feasible to go Baltimore-Philadelphia or Wilmington-New York.

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2011/07/08/263783/beijingshanghai-hsr-link-lead
s-to-175-drop-in-airfare/

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GOP presidential candidates must pledge fidelity
to their spouses (and to ban gays and porn)

post from Daily Kos on 08 July 2011 12:41:02 PM. © Daily Kos

Will the nuttiest among you please step forward? Wait, not all at once. (Photo: Reuters /Joel Page)

Via Mother Jones, this is pretty hilarious:

On Thursday, one of Iowa's most influential social conservative organizations, The Family Leader, informed GOP presidential candidates that to win the group's endorsement, they'll have to sign a pledge. Family Leader president Bob Vander Plaats, a former Mike Huckabee ally, wants GOP contenders to committ to a list of 14 red-meat items, including opposition to gay marriage, a ban on Islamic Sharia law, a rejection of pornography, and an affirmation that married couples have better sex.

You're probably thinking, wait a minute. They're supposed to sign a pledge that married couples have better sex? How do they know that? How is such a pledge enforced? Do the candidates themselves have to promise to have awesome sex with their spouses, or are we just talking generally about married couples? This raises many more questions than it answers.

And just guess which right-wing nut signed the pledge first? Here's a hint: Pawlenty's campaign thinks she's got "a little sex appeal."

But wait. It gets even better. Way better. Unless your name is Newt:

Presidential candidates who sign The Marriage Vow will sign off on support of personal fidelity to his/her spouse, appointing faithful constitutionalists as judges, opposition to any redefinition of marriage, and prompt reform of uneconomic and anti-marriage aspects of welfare policy, tax policy, and divorce law. The Marriage Vow also outlines support for the legal advocacy for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), humane efforts to protect women and children, rejection of anti-women Sharia Islam, safeguards for all married and unmarried U.S. military personnel, and commitment to downsizing government and the burden upon American families.

Okay, so obviously Newt is out, with that whole "fidelity" issue. But that's only the beginning of this four-page, tiny-font gobbledy-gook. There's this gem, for example:

Rejection of Sharia Islam and all other anti-woman, anti-human rights forms of totalitarian control.

So anti-woman, anti-human rights stuff is bad. How refreshing! But then there's this:

Humane protection of women and the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy ? our next generation of American children ? from human trafficking, sexual slavery, seduction into promiscuity, and all forms of pornography and prostitution, infanticide, abortion and other types of coercion or stolen innocence.

Wait a minute. Paternalism and prudery about women's sexuality is a good thing now? And allowing women to control their own reproduction is bad? That sounds kind of like, well, anti-woman totalitarian control.

At least the social conservatives in Iowa want to make sure whichever Republican ultimately loses to Obama next year cares deeply about fighting against that wicked anti-human rights totalitarianism. Which is why Republicans are supposed to pledge their "vigorous opposition to any redefinition of the Institution of Marriage" (No. 4); "earnest, bona fide legal advocacy for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)" (No. 7); "steadfast embrace of a federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution" (No. 8); and of course No. 14:

Fierce defense of the First Amendment's rights of Religious Liberty and Freedom of Speech, especially against the intolerance of any who would undermine law-abiding American citizens and institutions of faith and conscience for their adherence to, and defense of, faithful heterosexual monogamy.

Because a bigot's right to say really hateful shit about gay people is sacrosanct. It says so right there in the First Amendment, after all.

And for those keeping score at home, yes, that's four separate promises, in a 14-point pledge, to discriminate against gay people. Which, again, sounds kind of like ... oh, what are the words? Anti-human totalitarian control?

There are other standard conservative talking points in there as well. No activist judges, of course. Debt reduction. Welfare reform. All the usual stuff.

Bottom line: If Republican presidential wannabes want to get this prime endorsement, they have to pledge to join the American Taliban, just like Jesus did.

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/E4xiD7RWEQM/-GOP-presidential-cand
idates-must-pledge-fidelity-to-theirÂ spouses-(and-to-ban-gays-andÂ porn)

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Taboo

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 08 July 2011 12:32:45 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Etymology:--1777 (in Cook's "A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean"), "consecrated, inviolable, forbidden, unclean or cursed," explained in some English sources as being from Tongan (Polynesian language of the island of Tonga) ta-bu "sacred," from ta "mark" + bu[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Docudharma/~3/ZJGPz3_H2P8/taboo-by-Robyn

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David Plouffes Shell Game, 2012 Edition

post from Taylor Marsh on 08 July 2011 12:30:58 PM. © Taylor Marsh

President Obama?s senior political adviser David Plouffe said Wednesday that people won?t vote in 2012 based on the unemployment rate. – Top Obama adviser says unemployment won’t be key in 2012 King David has spoken. Oh, am I relieved.[...]

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http://taylormarsh.com/blog/2011/07/david-plouffes-shell-game-2012-edition/

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This Week In The Dream Antilles

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 08 July 2011 12:26:35 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Greetings from Paraiso! For the past week, your Bloguero has been in Bahia Soliman, a sheltered bay just north of the famous ruins at Tulum, Mexico. Your Bloguero spends as much time here as he can. And as you can probably[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Docudharma/~3/vYn6vAofYxA/this-week-in-the-dream-a
ntilles

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Should We Support the Republican in 2012

Cross-posted at FDLI was an Obama volunteer, donator, and county delegate in 2008. When he was elected I spent the most hopeful night of my political life--surely a black Democrat and former community organizer would turn out to be the FDR we[...]

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Docudharma/~3/h-6w4KWpSZo/should-we-support-the-re
publican-in-2012

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Why this summer IS truly different!

They’re lining up in the wake of last week’s rally. You know who I’m talking about. The “second half recovery” crowd.

Two years ago, in the summer of 2009, they said a short-term pullback in the market and the economy was just a correction. And thanks to the $800 billion-plus in economic stimulus spending, plus the Federal Reserve’s asset-inflating “QE1″ program, they were right.

One year ago, in the summer of 2010, they said the Flash Crash and market pullback wouldn’t amount to anything. Because Helicopter Ben Bernanke launched QE2, they got that right too.

But this summer, it truly is different!

The Fed can’t ride to the rescue with QE3, with multiple policymakers nixing that notion . . . → Read More: Why this summer IS truly different!

Read The Full Article:
http://jutiagroup.com/20110708-why-this-summer-is-truly-different/

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Obama Threatens Veto Of Any Debt Limit Deal
Under $2 Trillion

Because we have a governing elite that doesn’t understand basic economic theory, the horrific jobs report will probably not change the mindset of the next 72 hours, which is to cement a deal to massively reduce the deficit, mostly through cutting[...]

Read The Full Article:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/firedoglake/fdl/~3/96DR1_ZJh2o/

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