Lack of Health Insurance Isnt the Largest Killer
Within the U.S. Health Care System

It's estimated that 25,000 to 50,000 lives are lost each year in the U.S. due to lack of health insurance. Therefore, lack of health insurance is among the top ten leading causes of death in this country. Many people don't realize this because[...]

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Aug. 18: Obama Leads Big - Among Those Least
Likely to Vote

The latest data brought little change to the forecast of the presidential race.

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http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/aug-18-obama-leads-big-among-
those-least-likely-to-vote/

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Making as little as $5,000 kicks you off Medicaid
in some states

A story on the Huffington Post exposes what Republicans really are doing in this country, specifically to Medicaid. 

How much is too much for someone to be ineligible for Medicaid? In some states, adults earning as little as $5,000 can be kicked off the program.

Medicaid is a federal program designed to provide health coverage to children and adults with limited financial means and disabilities. Different states have different financial qualifications that adults must meet in order to receive coverage.

In most states, adults in a family of three must have a combined income that is less than the federal poverty level, which is currently at $19,090 for a family of three. But in states like Florida, Mississippi and Pennsylvania, adults who qualify must have an income of 26 percent or less of the FPL, according to The Kaiser Commission On Medicaid And The Uninsured. In states like Alabama and Texas, making more than $3,000 can be deemed as making too much to receive subsidized medical coverage.

7993-02

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kicks-you-off.html

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"FRC's own activities are what brought this down
on them"

Classliberal2 writes in the comments to my earlier post about the Family Research Council and the recent shooting at its headquarters in Washington, DC:The FRC is loudly claiming the "hate group" designation brought on this attempted massacre, and I think it needs to be pointed out, much more loudly and forcefully, that their own activities are, in fact, what brought this down on...

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-what-brought.html

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Did David Koch Buy The Nomination for Young Paul
Ryan

Consultant Roger Stone shilling for Gary Johnson.

You have to love it when the Republicans turn on each other. But is Roger Stone telling the truth? Joe Conason thinks there's a possibility and God knows, stranger things have happened. Conason points out Stone is supporting Libertarian Gary Johnson for president, so he might be trying to undercut Ryan for that reason.

But I sure would love to know if it's true:

Veteran Republican political consultant, unrepentant dirty trickster, and recently reborn libertarian Roger Stone yesterday published a startling accusation against Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney on his personal website, The Stone Zone. According to Stone, the billionaire Koch brothers purchased the Republican vice presidential nomination for Ryan from Romney in late July by promising to fork over an additional $100 million toward ?independent expenditure? campaigning for the GOP ticket.

Any such transaction would represent a serious violation of federal election laws and perhaps other statutes, aside from the ethical and character implications for all concerned. Although Stone is not the most reputable figure, to put it mildly, he has been a Republican insider, with access to the party?s top figures, over four decades. His credentials date back to Nixon?s Committee to Reelect The President and continue through the Reagan White House, the hard-fought Bush campaigns, and the Florida fiasco in 2000, when he masterminded the ?Brooks Brothers riot? that shut down the Bush-Gore recount in Miami-Dade. Peruse his site and you?ll see his greatest hits and the attention he has drawn from major publications.

I?ve known Roger personally for years and always considered him intelligent and amusing; also extremely dangerous and even erratic. Sometimes I?ve been surprised by how much he knows about the inner-most workings of his party ? even when he is clearly persona non grata among the current power elite.

Here is how Stone led his latest post, headlined ?The Paul Ryan Selection, ?which also delivers an amusing swipe at a certain Fox News analyst:

I?ve waited a few days to lay out my analysis of the selection of Paul Ryan for the VP slot on the Romney ticket. Unlike politicos like Dick Morris who badmouths the selection privately and shills for it publicly, I?ll tell you what I really think. My sources tell me David Koch played a key role in Ryan?s selection and that Koch?s wife Julia had been quietly lobbying for Ryan. The selection was cemented at the July 22nd fundraiser Koch held for Romney at the former?s sumptuous Hamptons estate. Koch pledged $100 million more to C-4 and Super PAC efforts for Romney [in exchange] for Ryan?s selection.

I guess when you're married to a billionaire, diamonds lose their thrill after awhile. And buying a VP nomination is so very close to the ultimate thrill: Owning a human being!

When he mentions ?C-4,? of course, Stone is referring to the tax-exempt non-profit groups recognized by the IRS under section 501-C-4 of federal tax law ? such as Americans For Prosperity, a group largely backed by the Koch brothers that has so far spent nearly $20 million on this year?s campaign. The C-4 groups, including another known as Crossroads GPS run by Karl Rove, need not disclose their rich donors, while Super PACs do. This year, the right-wing C-4s are outspending all the SuperPACS combined, as Pro Publica reported recently.

Well, well, well. It certainly would be interesting if it's true.

Read The Full Article:
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/did-david-koch-buy-nomination-young-p

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Star Parker Kind of Knows That Guy Who Got Shot
the Other Day So You Should Probably Give Her Some of Your Money

Star Parker is this lady who used to steal stuff and had four abortions and was on the welfare until one day Jesus talked to her and told her to "knock that shit off, and quit with your stealin' and abortin' and welfarin' ways and get yourself a real[...]

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VIDEO: Julian Assange Speaks from the Ecuadorian
Embassy

Julian Assange will reportedly address the public from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.[...]

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LiveStream: Julian Assange to Speak from the
Ecuadorian Embassy

Julian Assange will reportedly address the public from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.[...]

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Who Will Play Robin Hood To Rahm Emanuel's
Sheriff Of Nottingham

San Bernardino is at the vortex of the mortgage scandal crisis, a crisis caused by Wall Street greed and a crisis that Wall Street greed is keeping from being fixed. There are something like 150,000 homes in San Bernardino with mortgages worth less than what buyers paid for them (i.e., underwater). More than half of all homeowners countywide are underwater. If banksters were busy fighting to stay out of prison-- or, better, yet, to reduce their sentences or to be moved to federal prisons closer to home so their families could visit them more easily-- they wouldn't be threatening expensive legal action now against local governments trying to fix the problem. And when you see the kind of slime on the side of the banksters-- like wholly-owned Wall Street subsidiary Rahm Emanuel-- you get a pretty good idea that there's a clear path to solving the problem. It's called eminent domain and it's how San Bernardino and other municipalities could finally get Wall Street's mess behind them. Under the plan, cities would seize underwater mortgages through their power of eminent domain at a discounted price, and then reduce the principal owed on the homes, refinance them to lower homeowners' monthly payments and sell them back to the owners.

While Chicago's City Council met to consider using eminent domain to solve that city's foreclosure crisis, Emanuel was mouthing the words of the Wall Street titans who financed his entire political career and made him a multimillionaire. "The idea of using eminent domain is not one I support ... because I don't think it's the right way to address the problem," Emanuel said. "I don't think it is the power of the city to deal with the housing issue. We have a national issue. I think we have to address the issue. I just don't think that is the right instrument."

Ben Hallman reported on the battle between San Bernardino and Wall Street's mortgage industry criminals. Wall Street is hysterical and threatening dire consequences. "We believe using eminent domain would reduce access to credit for borrowers and would, at a minimum, result in lengthy and costly litigation," said Timothy Cameron, a managing director of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

Under the plan, Mortgage Resolution Partners would front money to local governments to purchase the loans at market value in exchange for a fixed fee of $4,500 each. Homeowners could then refinance at the lower value, potentially saving hundreds of thousands of dollars each month in mortgage payments-- while also injecting a shot of adrenaline into moribund local economies.

More than a dozen local governments, including those in Suffolk County, N.Y., in Berkeley, Calif., and in Chicago are considering the proposal. But government officials, including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Edward DeMarco at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, have expressed skepticism of using eminent domain in this way, as has the mortgage and finance industry, which has not-so-subtly threatened an expensive legal fight should any governmental entity go forward with such a plan.

...Left unsaid by the mortgage industry is who, exactly, would mount a legal challenge, but it is likely that SIFMA, which represents hundreds of banks and asset managers, would lead the charge. Over the past few months the industry group has released a series of statements warning of dire consequences should San Bernardino-- or any of the dozen or so other local government groups considering an eminent domain measure -- pursue such a remedy.

SIFMA has described the proposal as unconstitutional, and claimed that using eminent domain in this fashion would harm everyday investors and pensioners and would undermine the U.S. mortgage market. Using eminent domain in such a fashion would actually "exacerbate the problem" of depressed property values, Cameron warned, because borrowers in any area that embraces eminent domain may find new mortgages and refinancings more costly and more difficult to obtain.

But homeowners who showed up at the meeting said they are skeptical of the mortgage finance industry's motives. "We've seen a bailout of the banking industry, but no bailout for homeowners," said Arie Giddens, a San Bernardino resident whose home is worth less than half the $300,000 she paid for it in 2005, according to an estimate by Zillow, a real estate website.

Giddens said she missed a few payments when she lost her job last year, and is now in a trial loan modification through her loan servicer, Citigroup. She has not been offered principal reduction by the bank, she said.

Giddens' loan is owned by a private investor, and thus would potentially qualify for a principal reduction under the Mortgage Resolution Partners plan-- but she lives in the city of San Bernardino, which is separate from the county now considering homeowner relief proposals. "I think it's time we got some help out here," she said

If only she lived in Spain instead of San Bernardino, more specifically in Marinaleda in Andalucia, she would, at least, get a more receptive hearing from government officials-- or one government official, Marinaleda Robin Hood mayor.

For Spain?s ruling politicians he is a criminal; for his supporters he is Robin Hood, stealing from supermarkets and redistributing the food to the poor.

Juan Manuel Sánchez Gordillo, the mayor of Marinaleda, a southern town with a population of 2,600, has been catapulted to cult hero status in Spain after setting out this week on an anti-austerity march across Andalucia-- occupying banks and stealing food, and enraging the government of Mariano Rajoy.

Earlier this month Mr Sánchez Gordillo stood outside a supermarket with cheering supporters as trade unionists piled food into shopping trolleys and left without paying, later donating the items to food banks for the poor. The raid resulted in seven arrests.

The 59-year-old is also a member of the regional parliament, and enjoys immunity from prosecution. He says he will forgo this right on the march, which began this week with about 500 supporters.

?We are fighting a war for the poor ... going to jail is not important for me, it would be an honour,? Mr Sánchez Gordillo told the Financial Times.

?We are going to occupy all of the banks and supermarkets we are able to in Andalucia. The robbers who have caused this crisis must pay the consequences for what they have done.?

Mr Sánchez Gordillo, who wears a large beard and often sports a keffiyeh-style scarf, said he was attacking banks for repossessing the homes of people unable to pay their mortgages, and supermarkets for damaging local farmers.

?The euro is a fraud that enriches some and impoverishes the rest ... There are families going hungry, and small farmers who are ruined. We are asking for a change of the political model.?

His actions have infuriated Spain?s ruling Popular party, which has called for him to be stripped of his seat for the United Left party in Andalucia?s parliament.

?One can?t be Robin Hood and at the same time earning a salary as the sheriff of Nottingham,? said Alfonso Alonso, parliamentary spokesman for the ruling PP in Spain?s parliament.

?This man is looking for publicity at the cost of everyone else, and above all at the cost of the image of Spain,? he said.

During its first seven months in power, Mr Rajoy?s government has implemented swinging austerity measures that have damaged his popularity and triggered waves of demonstrations by public workers.

Andalucia, Spain?s largest region by population, has 30 per cent unemployment-- the highest of any region within the European Union. It has become a focal point for the government?s drive to rein in regional spending, and earlier this month Madrid clashed with the southern region over new budget cuts.

?This could close 19 hospitals, all of the Andalucian health service, or get rid of 60,000 public workers, one in four of the local governments workforce,? José Antonio Griñán, the region?s leader, said earlier this month.

On Friday, the marchers, who plan to sleep in the open or in parks, occupied a branch of Banco Santander in the town of Mancha Real in the province of Jaén before leaving later in the day.

Diego Canamero, head of the Andalucian Workers Union, was in the branch on Friday. He said critics of the protests were politicians protecting their own interests.

?These are symbolic actions against an unsustainable economic situation,? he said. ?The bankers rob us, and take our money to tax havens, and the political parties are corrupt. We live in a culture of robbery.?

Mr Canamero said the marchers were under tight police surveillance, but they would try and ?redistribute food for the most needy? if they could. Only staple items such as sugar, olive oil, milk and rice were being taken.

I hope if this catches on here, people realize how unhealthy sugar is and decide to redistribute fresh fruits and vegetables instead. And I hope it's brown rice and not that nutrition-free white polished garbage.



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Know your haters: The Values Voter Summit
dancecard

Do you understand radical Islam? Do you know how to protect your children from the commercial sex industry?It's been a very exciting week in the world of demagoguery politics!

First, Mitt Romney released his most dishonest and racist ad ever! Then Tuesday, Values Voter Summit made a big announcement: Nascent vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan will be joining them in September. Hopefully, he doesn't clam up and get testy when they ask him how much he hates gay people, like he did Meet The Press last February. This is the time to exercise your freedom of speech, Rep. Ryan. Let the vitriol flow!

Perhaps Rep. Ryan will also expand on his plan to segue America into a nation that gives big tax breaks to the very rich and pays for it by cutting food stamps, Medicare, Social Security. You know, as Jesus would do. Or have I confused Ayn Rand with Jesus again?

The Values Voter Summit began in 2006 by a collection of Christian political action groups. This year is sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, Liberty University, Gary Bauer's American Values, and bona fide Southern Poverty Law Center-certified hate groups, including the American Family Association, Liberty Counsel and the Family Research Council.

It's a great way for mostly white, affluent, Christian heterosexuals to network and compare notes for hating on and oppressing gays, poor people, sexually active women, uppity people of color and, of course, any of those dangerous religious whackos that don't worship the baby Jesus like all real Americans do. You can learn new strategies for meddling in other people's lives and imposing your own values and beliefs into their most personal decisions.

Superior dance lessons on SaturdayThe Summit is a great way to share camaraderie of others who hate the same people as you, and maybe open your eyes to new and exciting groups of people you may never have even contemplated hating before.

So pack your best conspiracy theories, your woeful and willful ignorance of science and history, your persecution and martyr complex, your paranoia, your deeply felt insecurities about your ever-more-tenuous grip on your social and economic supremacy, your unbridled antipathy for your fellow Americans, your racism, misogyny, islamophobia and homophobia and follow me over the fold for your handy guide to the national gathering of some of the most pale but colorful people in American politics.

Oh, and don't forget your Obama Derangement Syndrome. It's all the rage this year.

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http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/AkrOED1EVPY/-Know-your-haters-The-
Values-Voter-Summit-dancecard

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