Last week, a man lost his life in a rural area near here when cops arrived to bust his pot patch. The surviving grower sits in jail charged with attempted capital murder of a police officer.
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Editor in Chief: Michael Collins Editorial Team Contributing Authors Sean Paul Kelley |
Last week, a man lost his life in a rural area near here when cops arrived to bust his pot patch. The surviving grower sits in jail charged with attempted capital murder of a police officer. There are 21 House Republicans on record favoring a clean continuing resolution bill that will allow full staffing for the federal government. There are more who say they will support that measure if it comes up for a vote according to reporter Jennifer Bendery, who is keeping a running tally. We’ve heard about the 45 or so Tea Party Republicans who fear a primary if they break ranks on the destroy-Obamacare tactic that’s holding up a federal budget and keeping the government shut down. All but one are from states that President Obama carried in 2012. Most are from suburban areas near larger cities or areas with intensive military or government installations. For example, Rep. Rob Wittman’s Virginia district runs from Newport News, at the Southeast corner of the state, up to Dale City, a Washington, DC suburb. He’s in double trouble with concentrations of both government and federal workers. Continue reading These House Republicans also care about their next election Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s terse dismissal of Iranian President Rouhani’s recent overtures to the West was based solely on the two countries’ recent hostile past, not on an understanding of the two countries’ previous longstanding cooperation. Nor was it based on understanding the geopolitical realities upon which that longstanding cooperation was built and recognizing that those geopolitical realities are falling back into place all around him. The temporary shutdown of the US government begins tonight. The immediate consequence will be the furloughing of federal government employees who are considered “non-essential”. Some government offices will be operated on shortened hours or closed altogether, as will the national parks. Defense and intelligence agencies will remain open, though perhaps with fewer staff. Statistics gathering and economic releases will be halted, as will many of the hundreds of analytical reports that are issued monthly. Agencies that are independent of the federal government, such as the Federal Reserve and Congress, will operate as usual, though obviously in the public mind this is not necessarily a good thing in the case of the Congress. The United States went through this once before in the 1990s, and there is a strange sense of calm this time around, as if everyone knows what to expect, including the public. That is probably an unwise assumption, at the very least because the amounts of money involved now are staggeringly larger. Tomorrow – October 1st – the US Treasury has to make $122 billion in payments for military salaries, veterans benefits, and Medicare reimbursements. On the 3rd of October a $25 billion Social Security payment is due into public bank accounts, and $12 billion more is payable to recipients on the 9th. The Treasury’s cash balances going into October are large enough to cover these payments, but after that things get trickier. Continue reading The Debt Machine Grinds to a Very Temporary Halt Excellent analysis of the latest developments between the US and Iran, by Gary Sick. cat·ty Image: WikiCommons Continue reading Friday Catblogging – Cattiness
 Ted Cruz Leading from Behind Apocryphal or not, the image of lemmings committing mass suicide is ingrained in our culture, so much so that we may borrow it to describe the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives:
Apparently, lemmings aren’t blind. They’re just wimps. Continue reading The Marching Morons
Continue reading More To Life Than Bacon – 44 Clove Garlic Soup Steve Colbert, Jon Stewart, Andy Borowitz and Bill Maher.
One can only hope.
No, there’s no secret backroom negotiations. It’s merely the will of the American people being exercised. You see, nobody expected the volume of people who wanted – no, needed – to sign up for health insurance. “Needed,” because under the old system insurance was unaffordable, healthcare doubly so. This is an initiative that is wildly popular, despite polling you may have seen, precious few of which segregate people who don’t like Obamacare because they don’t like Obama from liberals who don’t like Obamacare because it doesn’t go far enough. Continue reading The Light at the End of the Tunnel  Affordable Care Act https://www.healthcare.gov/ Click on Apply Now …  …and you get this. The site is so busy at 10:52 ET, the system can’t handle the traffic. As of 8:11 PM Eastern Time, the national website for the Affordable Care Act (ACA)/Obamacare had 2.8 million hits. That’s the site for the 14 states without marketplace exchange. The states with exchanges are getting massive traffic. New York States exchange got 2.5 million hits in the first half hour of operation. California exchange had up to 10,000 hits a second earlier today. There is a huge need for affordable health insurance among the self-employed and others without health insurance benefits. The initial plan offerings are highly varied with premiums ranging from $100 to $500 a month for individuals. It’s too early to provide a survey of offerings since it’s hard to get to the exchanges. This is one major reason why congressional Republicans must stop Obamacare/ACA. The demand is huge. The offerings are not perfect by far but there’s something there for everyone. Once the program is in place and the hysteria stops, there will be a sense of gratitude. Finally, the self employed will see, there is a system that can work for them. They no longer need to go broke to buy health insurance. Continue reading Here’s one big reason why the Republicans must stop Obamacare – ACA
Oh, and the government is shut down. So yes, really, get ready to stand in lines. Or to quote John Boehner: “The House has voted to keep the government open but we also want basic fairness for all Americans under Obamacare.” Huh? “Basic fairness”? Isn’t that what healthcare reform provides? A lowering of medical costs? A lowering of premiums as competition is introduced into the marketplace? How is anything other than what we had NOT FAIRER????
That’s what we have. The Republican’s aren’t just difficult. They’re not just blinded by their principles. They’re not just passionate to the point of total unreason. They are all of these things plus they’re on crack. (Image: dan toye) Crack: Crack produces a quick, very intense feeling of euphoria in a rush that lasts about ten minutes. The comedown is just as intense. There’s a profound depression after the high. Frequent use is associated with loss of appetite, insomnia, and paranoia. Crack users are frequently more agitated than normal between usages. Crack is highly addictive. The Republican’s just shut down the government of the United States in the midst of a recession, at a time when the actions of both parties have made the nation the target of hostile nations and groups. While they claim to be the party of business, the Republicans are staging the equivalent of a sit down strike that profoundly disrupts the business of the United States of America. There is not one thing that’s businesslike about the shutdown. Continue reading Republicans on Crack, Democrats Forget their Job |
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Is Obamacare. Vary nice! We are all socialists now, no? After all, that’s what we’ve been warned about since the bill was proposed. And passed. And affirmed by the SCOTUS. So get your little red book of the sayings of Chairman Mao out of the box you stashed it in back in the early 80s, put up your poster of Joe Stalin, and get ready to stand in line for bread and toilet paper!
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