Month: July 2013

If Cows Could Fly

It is my couple of days of mental R&R, the weekend….that time when I try to find absurd stuff to pass along to break the monotony of politics………if there is one thing that is to die for it is a good piece of beef……but then there is this…..

(Newser) – “I didn’t bring my son up to be killed by a falling cow,” says the grieving mother of a Brazilian man killed when a cow crashed through the roof of his home. The 45-year-old was asleep next to his wife on Wednesday when the 3,000-pound animal, believed to have escaped from a nearby farm in Caratinga, stepped onto the corrugated roof after grazing on a hill behind the couple’s home, the Telegraph reports. The wife—and the cow—were unharmed.

The man died the next day from internal bleeding and his family says he died because he had to wait too long to see a doctor; the Independent reports the hospital has denied the claim. “Being crushed by a cow in your bed is the last way you expect to leave this earth,” his brother says. “But in my view it wasn’t the cow that killed our Joao, it was the unacceptable time he spent waiting to be examined.” According to local media, this is the third such incident in the area over the last few years, though nobody was killed in the previous two, the BBC reports.

Would that end my fascination with beef?  Well, if I was under the cow, it might…..but short of that it is beef……chop off its horn, wipe its butt and trot it out!

A Nightmare Scenario

Can you remember back to 2012?  The election…..all the negativity and lies……remember all the polls that show Mitt basically running neck and neck with Obama?  There were even some that were predicting a Mitt victory by a slim margin.  Through all this speculation came a political mathematician, Nate Silver……he was laughed at when he predicted the the Prez would win and win big……there were many in the MSM that totally ignored his numbers and his prediction…..and guess what?  He was right and all the “reputable” pollsters were completely WRONG!

As a political wonk I keep up with Nate Silver and his latest but initial findings are disturbing…….

Harry Reid might want to think carefully before revising the filibuster rules—because there’s a decent chance he’ll soon be on the other end of them. Nate Silver at the New York Times has crunched the race-by-race numbers, and based on them and his own best guesses and assumptions, concluded that “Republicans might now be close to even-money to win control of the chamber,” even though they’ll have to win more seats to do it this year (net six) than they needed in 2012.

Some key races include:

  • South Dakota and West Virginia: Democrats are retiring in both these states, the GOP has strong contenders, and the electorate leans red already.
  • North Carolina: Republicans still don’t have a good candidate here, but given how poorly incumbent Democrat Kay Hagan is polling, they need only a halfway decent one.
  • Arkansas: Democrat Mark Pryor’s poll numbers took a dip recently, and given how badly Blanche Lincoln lost her seat here, he can’t be feeling safe.
  • Montana: Barry Schweitzer’s decision not to run is a huge boon for Republicans who now have the most qualified potential candidate in former Gov. Marc Racicot, in a state that already leans red.
  • Alaska “is the closest thing to a tipping point state,” representing Republicans’ best bet to go from 50 seats to 51—assuming they win all of the above, plus tossup Louisiana—but incumbent Democrat Mark Begich is polling pretty well right now. (Will a familiar name be in the mix?)

This is worrying me…..I trust Silver and his technique…….it is disturbing to know that the GOP could possibly control both houses of the legislative branch…..if he is accurate, we are in for a long two years of total obstructionism………….any thoughts?

Hey! It’s Working!

I wish the twats on the Right would shut up and let the facts drive the conversation…..but that is probably too much to ask for in these times, huh?

We all know just how the Right feels about Obamacare, right?  They are always telling us what a dismal failure it is and will be…..and of course the Prez gave them more ammo when in postponed the small business part of the law……let me interrupt the mindless clowns and telling of the successes……..but first let’s look at the action taken by the House (again)………

(AP) – House Republicans voted today to delay core provisions of ObamaCare, emboldened by the administration’s concession that requiring companies to provide coverage for their workers next year may be too complicated. After a day of heated rhetoric, the House voted largely along party lines, 264-161, to delay by one year the so-called employer mandate of the Affordable Care Act. It voted 251-174 to extend a similar grace period to virtually all Americans who will be required to obtain coverage beginning Jan. 1, the linchpin of the law. The House legislation stands no chance in the Democratic-run Senate. Even if it somehow did, the White House promised two vetoes.

The dual political-show votes marked the 38th time the GOP majority has tried to eliminate, defund, or scale back the law since Republicans took control of the House in January 2011. “This administration cannot make its own law work,” said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, during House debate. Eager to counter the Republican criticism, Obama plans to deliver remarks tomorrow focusing on rebates that consumers are already receiving from insurance companies under the health care law.

And now as promised…..the SUCCESSES!

  • New York: Just today we found out that health insurance premiums for those in the individual market will plummet by 50 percent or more. The New York Times reports that someone who is paying $1,000 a month now will be able to purchase coverage next year for as little as $308 — and that’s not even counting potential Obamacare subsidies that could lower the cost even further.
  • California: The costs for a medium coverage plan are far below predictions. For example, in southern Los Angeles County Health Net is going to charge $242 a month for one of its plans while Blue Shield is charging $287 and Kaiser Permanente $325 for the same coverage. That means that the 5 million uninsured residents of California will now have more access to affordable, higher quality care than is currently available.
  • Montana: The individual and small group health plans sold on the marketplace will be cheaper and offer better coverage. Without the health law, insurance officials predicted the average premium in 2014 to rise by 10 percent to $290. Instead, the average cost for an individual plan will be $273 — about five percent lower than it would have been without the health law’s marketplace. Costs are going down even has insurance companies will now have to cover ten “essential health benefits,” including prescription drug and mental health services, that skimpy individual plans almost never cover.
  • Louisiana: Residents will soon see lower premiums as well. Just last week Louisiana’s largest private health insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, estimated that two-thirds of its customers who buy their own policies will pay the same premiums or less for better coverage under the federal health care overhaul.
  • Washington: After warning that premiums would go up by 50-70 percent under Obamacare, Premera Blue Cross released rates for individual plans that are far lower that current levels. Premera currently offers individual plans for 21-year-old non-smokers at a monthly cost of $325, with a deductible of $1,800. In the exchange, that same person in King County could purchase a similar Premera plan with a lower deductible at a rate of $276 — a decrease of 15 percent.

BOTTOM LINE: Obamacare is working. And with 24 million Americans expected to gain coverage through the marketplaces by 2016, that’s great news for Americans’ pocketbooks — as well as their health. It’s time Republicans do their job and make sure their constituents get coverage and the benefits from Obamacare, instead of doing everything in their power to take away those benefits from their constituents.

Okay sports fans here is the ammo we all need to fight the revisionist bullsh*t of the GOP……..make good use of the information at hand………we can beat the pants off the Right when armed with facts…..you have your facts…..GET BUSY!

Is It Happening Again?

Remember a couple of years ago and the BP oil rig disaster?  Well, guess what?  Off the coast of Louisiana there is another situation that could be a disaster in the making……..

Crews worked Wednesday to seal an old oil and gas well off the Louisiana coast that began leaking during work to plug it permanently.

Eileen Angelico, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, said the bureau is reviewing plans to seal the well. She said it’s most likely that drilling mud will be pumped in to stop the small flow.

The well and production platform, in the Gulf of Mexico about 75 miles southwest of the oil depot at Port Fourchon, are owned by a subsidiary of Houston-based Talos Energy LLC. The company said the well had not been producing for years.

Talos President Timothy S. Duncan said saltwater and small amounts of natural gas and the light oil-and-water mixture called condensate escaped the well. A light sheen is expected to evaporate.

Duncan said Wild Well Control Inc. has been brought in to seal the leak.

The well did not blow out, and there was no explosion or fire on the platform, Coast Guard Lt. Lily Zepeda said.

The well is one of three on a platform in water 144 feet deep. Production from the other two wells has been shut down.

Talos acquired the platform and wells in its February 2013 acquisition of Energy Resources Technology GOM, which also is based in Houston.

But we still will have the whack-a-doodles yelling “drill baby drill” (a post to come) and no t one of them will pay any attention to the possible problems there support could cause……but what do you expect from clowns owned by the banking clan?  They are trained animals that do as they are instructed like any good beat down animal…….good boys!

What Are Our Intentions In Syria?

We have heard all the BS from FOX or MSNBC or CNN about what the US should do and how we should react to the situations in Syria……….Senators, Talk show hosts, and especially us bloggers…..we all have an opinion…..but what is the intentions….the official intentions of the country?  What do our fearless leaders feel is the direction the country should travel in this situation?

I spent a little time checking out as many statements on Syria as I could find……

President Obama:

  • “[W]e want a Syria that is peaceful, non-sectarian, democratic, legitimate, tolerant. And that is our overriding goal. We want to end the bloodshed. We want to make sure that chemical weapons are not used, and that chemical weapons do not fall into the hands of people who would be willing to use them.”

Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes:

  • “[T]o help build an opposition that can be broadly representative of the Syrian people.”
  • “[T]o create a more moderate foundation for opponents of the regime so that we’re marginalizing extremists and empowering people that we believe will respect the rights of the Syrian people.”
  • “[S]ome type of transition that preserves state institutions.”

State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki:

  • “[T]o strengthen the opposition on the ground, but also their political organization, increase their effectiveness and their cohesion.”
  • “[T]he goal is for [the opposition] to expand…. They need to elect leadership.”
  • “[A] political solution, a political transition…. [T]hat remains our focus.”
  • “[I]mproving the ground situation for the opposition … change the balance on the ground.”

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel:

  • “To assure that this problem in Syria doesn’t totally break down and we see the disintegration of Syria.”

Secretary of State John Kerry:

  • “We do so not to seek a military solution; we do so to come to the table and find a political settlement.”

Tell me if any of what I just wrote helps in any way……personally, I am worried about our direction in Syria…..no scenario that I come up with bids well for the US…..we have had enough Bullsh*t wars….time to look inward and let the rest of the world fend for itself……just my thought……

But there is a development that is a prediction coming true…….

(Newser) – Syrian rebel groups are no longer just battling government forces; some are now fighting a second front: other rebel groups. Infighting has broken out amongst the rebels, with the Western-aligned Free Syrian Army clashing with al-Qaeda-aligned groups the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, reports the AP. There has been infighting before, but usually between Kurdish and Arab rebels. Now battles between moderates and Islamic extremist groups are on the rise, as the factions fight over border crossings, checkpoints, and assets like wells and gas stations, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Among the infighting incidents: a Free Syrian Army commander was shot dead while arguing with Islamic State fighters over a checkpoint this week, while two FSA fighters were allegedly beheaded by Islamic State members last week, the New York Times reports. A fighter from the area says last week’s fight broke out after a foreign fighter with the Islamic State raped a local boy. “We staged demonstrations to get freedom, not to have an emir ruling us,” he says. But the jihadist groups have been the most effective fighters amongst the rebels, reports the AP, capturing many military bases and towns—even though residents aren’t always happy about it. Graffiti in Aleppo reads, “Go back to Afghanistan, you have ruined the revolution,” reports the Times.

Someone please explain to the rest of us……just why would we get involved in Syria?

The full text: Malala Yousafzai delivers defiant riposte to Taliban militants with speech to the UN General Assembly – Asia – World – The Independent

The voice of a young woman who was targeted and shot by the Taleban because she advocated education for girls…..she survived and is now speaking out’……..

I wish our elected clowns had the courage of this young woman…..compared to her Washington is populated by cowards……

Please read her speech given to the UN General Assembly……and then tell me what you think…..

The full text: Malala Yousafzai delivers defiant riposte to Taliban militants with speech to the UN General Assembly – Asia – World – The Independent.