Rearranging the deck chairs in downtown St. Louis

post from Occasional Planet on 20 January 2011 03:58:04 PM. © Occasional Planet

Ballpark Village, we’re told, is on the rise?again. Well, maybe. But the latest incarnation calls for financial-services powerhouse Stifel-Nicolaus to be the primary tenant [and major broker for the deal itself], with some restaurants and bars thrown in for token economic diversity. There’s nothing creative or culturally stimulating about the plan. It’s just another ho-hum, [...]Related posts:

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Is Rick Santorum the Dumbest White Man on the
Right

post from Taylor Marsh on 20 January 2011 03:50:38 PM. © Taylor Marsh

Former Senator Rick Santorum: “The question is — and this is what Barack Obama didn’t want to answer — is that human life a person under the Constitution? And Barack Obama says no. Well if that person, human life is not a person,[...]

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Politifact: Cantor's claim that Affordable Care
Act a "job killer" False.

post from Daily Kos on 20 January 2011 03:42:04 PM. © Daily Kos

Eric Cantor, the darling of beltway insiders who still treat Republicans as people who have real policy ideas, has used his position as the "deep thinker" in the GOP to push the lie that the Affordable Care Act is a "job killer." How do we know it's a lie? Well, AP and McClatchy have both concluded so, and now are joined by Politifact:

The Republican report is right that the CBO has determined that the law will reduce "the amount of labor used in the economy," but the GOP report leaves out many important qualifiers. The CBO report actually says:

"The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the legislation, on net, will reduce the amount of labor used in the economy by a small amount—roughly half a percent—primarily by reducing the amount of labor that workers choose to supply....

Basically, the CBO is saying that some people right now are working mostly to keep their health insurance. Once they have other options -- to enroll in Medicaid, or to qualify for tax breaks to buy insurance from a health exchange -- they might choose to work less. The CBO describes this as a "small segment" of the population. And, because the CBO is describing reduced hours rather than lost jobs, it never uses the 650,000 number that the Republican document cites....

Now let's turn to the other piece of evidence, the study that claims that the health care law will result in 1.6 million lost jobs. That number comes from a study by the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

The problem with this study is that it isn't based on the law that passed. It was published on Jan. 26, 2009, before a finalized House or Senate bill had even been proposed....

We asked Cantor's office about whether the bill was "job-killing." A spokesman insisted that it was, pointing to individual business owners who said they would face increased costs under health care....

Republicans have used the "job-killing" claim hundreds of times -- so often that they used the phrase in the name of the bill. It implies that job losses will be one of the most significant effects of the law. But they have flimsy evidence to back it up.

The phrase suggests a massive decline in employment, but the data doesn't support that. The Republican evidence is extrapolated from a report that was talking about a reduction in the labor supply rather than the loss of jobs, or based on measures that weren't included in the final health care law. We rate the statement False.

Cantor is now saying that the CBO he once lauded is relying on "budget gimmickry," but according to Politifact, all the gimmickry seems to be coming from him.

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Obamas Approval Numbers Show Significant Increase

post from Firedoglake on 20 January 2011 03:40:15 PM. © Firedoglake

Over the past 12 days the Gallup daily tracking poll found Obama's job approval numbers have been net positive every day.[...]

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Rick Santorum plays the race card while
criticizing Pres. Obama

post from AAreports on 20 January 2011 03:32:57 PM. © AAreports

While doing a televised interview Rick Santorum took President Obama to task for his views on abortion. That’s fair enough but then Mr. Santorum decided to bring race into the mix by saying, “…I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are going to decide who are people and who [...]

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What if you had a black tea party event and not
enough blacks showed up

post from AAreports on 20 January 2011 03:25:15 PM. © AAreports

A group of black entrepreneurs, elected officials and constituents has launched its own Tea Party in Houston ( Crispus Attucks Tea Party ). As it turned out, only about half of the 75 people who attended were African American. Read more here: http://aareports.com/2011/01/what-if-you-held-black-tea-party-event.html

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Midday open thread

post from Daily Kos on 20 January 2011 03:02:03 PM. © Daily Kos

Are you a woman with boobs? Then you best not leave the house. It makes guys uncomfortable.
That goes double if you're a black woman with boobs.

Howard Dean will be hosting a live chat here on Daily Kos tonight at 9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT. This link will eventually auto-direct to the Daily Kos diary with the chat. Or you can just look for the diary at the appointed time.

Finally! Someone who will miss Lieberman!

The retirement of Independent Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman will remove from Capitol Hill a powerful proponent for robust Pentagon spending and weapons programs [...]

“The defense industry is losing one of its biggest cheerleaders on Capitol Hill,” Brian said. “Taxpayers expect their members of Congress to provide aggressive oversight of defense spending, but Sen. Lieberman more often played the role of caddy to the defense industry, rather than watchdog.”

United Technologies has donated more to Lieberman during his political career than any other company, individual or political group, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The firm has donated over $250,000 to Lieberman’s coffers since 1998.

Ariana Huffington certainly won't miss that sexist lying piece of shit.

What Digby said:

Any Democrat who thinks that the Republicans will not run "independent" expenditure ads against them for cutting social security are delusional. The senior vote is the GOP's most reliable age demographic at the moment, what with that strange man in the White House slashing Medicare and all.

Do Democrats still believe voters give a rat's ass about deficits? As Digby and others note, the GOP campaign in 2010 was really about cutting Medicare, since the health care law cut the immensely wasteful Medicare Advantage program. Suddenly, small-government Republicans were ALL about throwing more taxpayer dollars at a genuinely wasteful government program. As cynical as it was, seniors bought it and turned out big for the GOP. Republicans will do the exact same thing in 2012 if Democrats go anywhere near Social Security. Republicans may hate Social Security, but they'll happily run hypocritical ads embracing it in order to win the next election.

LOL:

Sounds about right.

I would've killed to have this kind of gear when I served in the Army.

Goddam it, it's not Sunday yet? And the stakes just got bigger.

Gov. Pat Quinn and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker have placed their bets on Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers, and the loser will have to volunteer at a food pantry in the winner’s state.

To add insult to injury, the loser will have to wear a t-shirt featuring the winning team, as well as fly the team’s flag in the governor’s office on the day before the Super Bowl.

Of course, both politicians already are declaring victory.

“I am sure Governor Walker will look great in blue and orange,” Quinn said in a statement today. “Bear down, Chicago Bears.”

Epic. Just epic.

In fact, this Sunday's game is much bigger than even the Super Bowl. Nothing can ever top beating the Packers in a conference championship. In fact, the two teams haven't even met in a playoff game for over 70 years.

Sorry Jets and Steelers fans, but this is the game of the year.

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Safety Group Accidentally Touches Off Accusations
That Michelle Obama Is Killing Pedestrians

post from TPMMuckraker on 20 January 2011 03:01:55 PM. © TPMMuckraker

First, the Daily Caller's headline read: "First Lady's anti-obesity campaign could be causing more pedestrian deaths." Then, later, they hedged a little:

"Highway safety spokesperson blames pedestrian deaths on first lady's obesity campaign."

This, as you might imagine, piqued our interest. Here's what happened:

This morning, the Governors Highway Safety Association released a report noting that the number of pedestrian deaths has slightly increased. The group, which looked at the first six months of 2010, made two hypotheses as to why: One, that pedestrians and drivers are more distracted by cell phones and the like; and two, that there are simply more pedestrians these days.

"A focus on liveable communities, or 'get moving' health and fitness programs may
increase walking and pedestrian-vehicle conflicts," the report reads.

The Daily Caller and the Washington Examiner jumped on that part of the report, claiming it was an attack on First Lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign.

Here's how the Daily Caller put it:

Pedestrian deaths increased sharply during the first half of 2010, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA). On Wednesday, the Executive Director of the GHSA accused the first lady's obesity program of causing the deaths by encouraging people to exercise.

And the Examiner:

But the "get moving" movement, led by Obama's "Let's Move" campaign to eliminate childhood obesity, could be to blame, [the executive director] told The Washington Examiner .

Not so much, though.

"That makes it seems like we're blaming Michelle Obama's program," GHSA executive director Barbara Harsha told TPM. "That's ridiculous."

(The Daily Caller has now added Harsha's objections to the story and added a question mark to the end of its headline.)

"We want people to walk more, and to exercise," she said. "We just want people to be aware, to pay attention to traffic and traffic signals."

Harsha also noted that the GHSA has no data to show that more people are walking -- it's just a theory.

The First Lady's office has not returned requests for comment.

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Russ & Margaret, we hardly knew ye...

Representatives Margaret Rogers and Russ Nowell announced that they were switching to the Republican Party today. Of course both of them had been voting with Republicans all along, including votes for Jeff Smith in the Speaker's race. Interestingly, Nowell voted for Smith after giving Speaker Billy McCoy his word that he'd support McCoy, which prevented Nowell from being effective in any way for his district over the last 3 years.

In reality, this is no big deal, as neither held any great power. Reaction from elected Democrats seems to be a collective yawn. Steve Holland, in a comment that typified the mood around the Capitol said, "It's good for them to finally embrace who they are."

Predictably, Majority in Mississippi, a Republican blog, has a post up that fixates on race. But are we surprised by that? Surely not.

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Revived GOP Talking Lie: Emergency Rooms Take
Care of Uninsured

Between Bill O'Reilly in this clip, CSPAN callers (who I'm convinced are often paid to call and start spewing talking points), and our elected representatives, we are witnessing the Great Revival of the Emergency Room Lie.

It goes like this: Everyone has access to health care because emergency rooms have to treat people who walk through their doors. You can hear the expanded version in the video above, or tune into CSPAN between House votes on the replay of today's shenanigans to hear your 'everyday caller' talk about it. With citations to the law, even.

Ezra Klein would like us to remember young Diamonte Driver, the uninsured 12-year old who died from an abcessed tooth. He had access to emergency services.

In February 2007, Deamonte Driver died of an infected tooth. But he didn't really die of an infected tooth. He died because he didn't have consistent insurance. If he'd had an Aetna card, a dentist would've removed the tooth earlier, and the bacteria that filled the abscess would never have spread to his brain.
Deamonte Driver was 12. His insurance status wasn't his fault.

Because who thinks an abcessed tooth is something one can get treated in an emergency room, after all? Sure, Deamonte Driver had access to the emergency room. He even went to the emergency room, finally. He was there long enough to die.

Washington Post, 2007:

Twelve-year-old Deamonte Driver died of a toothache Sunday.
A routine, $80 tooth extraction might have saved him.
If his mother had been insured.
If his family had not lost its Medicaid.
If Medicaid dentists weren't so hard to find.
If his mother hadn't been focused on getting a dentist for his brother, who had six rotted teeth.
By the time Deamonte's own aching tooth got any attention, the bacteria from the abscess had spread to his brain, doctors said. After two operations and more than six weeks of hospital care, the Prince George's County boy died.
Deamonte's death and the ultimate cost of his care, which could total more than $250,000, underscore an often-overlooked concern in the debate over universal health coverage: dental care.

That's how that 'everyone gets care in an emergency room' thing works. No preventive. No basic services. You go when it's escalated to an emergency, when it costs a fortune for treatment and the chances of death or permanent disability are even higher.

Here's something else that happens. Hospitals that handle large numbers of the poor and indigent in their emergency rooms end up closing, because they lack the funding to keep treating patients when they are not being paid. Martin Luther King Hospital in LA closed about six months after Deamonte Driver died.

The most crucial closure was that of MLK?s emergency room, which shut its doors at 7 p.m. last Friday night. Plus, all of the facility?s inpatient care will be parceled out to other hospitals in the next 10 days, said Chernof. But an ?urgent-care center? will operate in the hospital, he said ? an on-site clinic that deals with non-emergency issues such as fever, rashes, burns, insect bites and fractures. And the medical center?s walk-in clinics ? dealing with such specialties as HIV/AIDS, diabetes and infertility ? will remain open.

It is now 2011, and LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas has been working to get Martin Luther King Medical Center re-opened.

Ridley-Thomas? foremost achievement, say his aides, has been his effort to restore in-patient medical services at MLK. Over the past year, a new board of directors has been established at the hospital, which will be independently governed as a nonprofit enterprise. The board, Harris said, will be tasked with managing and operating the facility, while the county will contract its services.
?The other significant development related to the hospital in particular is that we have begun the process of building out the in-patient tower, the existing seismically compliant tower that is associated with the old hospital,? Harris said, adding that the top three floors of the six-floor building are a shell right now but the design stage is underway.
Additionally, the south public health center, adjacent to the campus, broke ground last year and is about 50 percent complete, Harris said. The building is currently being weatherproofed. Interior work will proceed in the next few months. Completion is expected by April, with the center operating by September.
[...]
County officials say they continue to receive cooperation from the state and while a possible repeal of the healthcare bill signed by President Barack Obama may have an impact on the county?s ability to have the hospital in full operation by spring 2013, they do not foresee it.

That last paragraph hints at the reason they've been able to move ahead with re-opening this hospital. First, because their public health center will receive substantial federal funds under the portion of the Affordable Care Act funding community health centers, thanks to Senator Bernie Sanders. Second, because they can develop a financial plan that actually delivers health care before it becomes an emergency, and that delivery will be paid for under the Affordable Care Act.

So much for the everyone gets care at emergency rooms nonsense, eh, BillO?

This recycled Republican talking lie (not a point, just a lie) points to what liars they are about the 'replace' part of their repeal campaign pledge. They don't want to replace anything. They think it's just fine for people to go without routine, basic health care and head over to the local ER when something might be life-threatening.

It all makes me sick, but I'm pretty certain Fox Fever is a pre-existing condition.

Update: Oh look. Here's the same lie in 2009, with Paul Broun mouthing the words.