Take Two: Bon's Remix

So, Zandar touched on a couple of things this morning and he was right that they are dear to my heart.  I'll just have a short say here, he already did an excellent job of covering it.

It's about damned time.  Women's roles have changed in the world, as have our rights to own our bodies and to make choices about our health care.  One thing we obviously contend with that men do not is the responsibility of carrying a child and face much more pressure raise those kids after the dad says sorry and runs off.  Birth control is important as more women choose to take care of themselves instead of moving directly from parents to husband.  That sounds simple, but really think about how recently that change has come about, and how explosive the numbers have been.  Three generations ago, most women went from Dad to husband without a single moment in life to discover herself as a person.  Women were often cherished but rarely respected, and that is starting to change.  There is no logical reason why a woman cannot decide to avoid becoming pregnant.  In a time of global crowding, limited resources and women having to work to support themselves, it makes total sense to put off having kids until a woman has reached a point of emotional and physical maturity and make a decision to put their everything into it.

But it isn't having kids that is the real problem, am I right?  Nope, it's having sex.  Good old-fashioned bumping uglies, a little afternoon delight and some happy slappy later.  That is the problem for folks who think they should be able to tell others how to spend their lives.  Somewhere, a prude with power is losing sleep at the notion that two consenting adults might be having fun.  That just bugs the hell out of some people. The fact that kids result from this only creates tiny little victims in a power play between the pious in charge and the women who bear the price for their lofty opinions.  These idiots tsk at unwed mothers while denying them the solution.  Instead of celebrating a way to let people live how they choose and do an overpopulated world a favor, we have the righteous with no respect trying to force reproduction on those too poor or too intimidated to take advantage of a modern solution.

This is a major advancement in making birth control available to those who need it the most.  If Planned Parenthood could catch a break now, we could right a whole host of wrongs and make birth control even more available.  The strategy of making it difficult to obtain as an obstacle for the poor or using emotional bullying to enforce moral superiority just dropped a notch.  Morals don't belong in medical care.  Women should be able to use insurance for all medical needs, and pharmacies should fill the orders of physicians without personal judgment.  We have the right to make medical decisions for ourselves free of interference from others.  Anything less is discrimination, which has rightfully been recognized.

No Dealing On The Debt Ceiling, Part 49

Just about the last post on this whole mess I hope.  The Senate will take up the bill at noon today and it is expected to get 60 votes and go on to the President's desk before the end of the day.

Senate leaders seem confident they have at least the 60 necessary votes to carry the deal. If they're right, then the final bill would move swiftly to the President's desk for his signature. Once the ink is on the page, the the debt ceiling can be raised ahead of the nearing deadline, and the ticking timebomb of default will be defused.

It will be the end of a dangerous game of chicken that shook markets across the world as creditors faced up to the possibility that for the first time in its history America might fail to pay its credit obligations.

The chances of that happening dropped dramatically shortly after 7pm Monday, when the House passed the debt legislation by a vote 269-161. It was a controversial deal that many voted for unhappily, recognizing it was perhaps their last chance to halt a national leap into the unknown. Though the bulk of Republicans ultimately voted in favor by a tally of 174-66, the Democrats fractured right down the middle: 95-95. Intriguingly, the Republicans' so-called "Tea Party Caucus," which was reportedly described by Vice President Joe Biden as having acted like "terrorists," also split fairly evenly: 32-38. 

The 60 vote threshold in the Senate is to make 40-45 Dem senators vote for it, presumably, while the GOP will only have to put up 15-20.  Keep a close eye on the senators up for re-election next year and how they vote.  Republicans will want to hang this vote on as many Dems as they can, particularly Claire McCaskill (MO), Sherrod Brown (OH) , Bob Casey (PA), Jon Tester (MT), Amy Klobuchar (MN), Debbie Stabenow (MI), Ben Nelson (NE) and Bill Nelson (FL).

Keep an eye on what Republicans Dick Lugar of Indiana, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, and Olympia Snowe of Maine vote as well.  The cries of "primary them!" from the Tea Party were loud enough before this vote.

Meanwhile, the price tag on extra interest payments demanded by the bond markets because of this mess is becoming clear.

To be precise, the extra cost is $1,721,250,000 more in interest payments than the government would have needed to pay investors just two weeks ago, when they were willing to accept far lower rates before the debt ceiling became a crisis.

"That's real money," said IHS Chief Economist Nariman Behravesh. "Taxpayers need to wake up to the fact that these kind of shenanigans in the end cost." 

Another $1.7 billion for the fire, and that was just two weeks worth of silliness.  Imagine what the damage will be if somehow this deal gets scuttled at the last minute with the deadline looming tonight. We'll see what happens.

Obama Administration Has It Covered, Ladies

Yet another meaningful victory for women, the Obama administration, and the ACA:  the Department of Health and Human Services has issued guidelines on coverage for women's health under the new health care law and is requiring health insurers to cover women's preventative care and birth control as of August 2012.

The mandate from the Health and Human Services Department represents a landmark decision in a decades-long debate on women's health issues that has pitted family planning groups against conservative organizations.

"Under the law, we're making it illegal to charge women more just because of their gender," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Monday.

The guidelines, a product of last year's healthcare overhaul, go into effect on Monday, and require insurers to do away with co-payments on coverage of preventive care services for women in all new plans beginning in August 2012.

The rules largely follow recommendations from a scientific advisory group released last month.
The U.S. Institute of Medicine (IOM) said in a July report that all government-approved birth control methods -- including the "morning-after pill," taken shortly after sexual intercourse to stop a pregnancy -- should be included in the U.S. list of preventive health services.

The newly required coverage also includes free screenings for gestational diabetes, testing for human papillomavirus in women over 30, counseling for HIV and sexually transmitted infections, and screening for domestic violence.

"Today is a historic victory for women's health and women across the country," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "The decision by HHS is monumental for millions of women."

Big, massive check mark on President Obama's record in office in the "promise kept" column.  Bon will probably have a lot more to say about this as well, this has been a major issue that she's been talking about.

These are the kind of positive changes that we said were coming with the passage of ACA and lo and behold these benefits are kicking in now that the law has been in effect for a while.  Yes, we've got another year to go before it's fully implemented, but it's coming.  This is also why 2012's election is so vital in order to safeguard these gains.

Hotel New Hampshire

The latest government numbers on alcohol and marijuana use show if you're looking for a good time, the Granite State is where to go:

Around 52 percent of 137,436 Americans interviewed in 2008 and 2009 said they had a tipple in the past month, the report released late last month by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) says.

Drinking was most prevalent among 18-25 year olds, with the northeastern state of New Hampshire leading the charge: three-quarters of young adults in the state said they'd used alcohol in the past month, the report says.

Also a big state for knocking back a few stiff ones:  North Dakota is America's binge drinking capital.  But New Hampshire also likes to toke as well:

SAMHSA also looked at Americans' marijuana use and found that numbers using pot in the past month were up for the two years covered by the report: 6.4 percent of Americans aged 12 and older said they had used marijuana in the past month compared to six percent in 2007-2008.

In the 12- to 17-year age group, marijuana use fell, but seven percent of US teens still use cannabis, the report said.

The 10 states that saw the highest use of marijuana were Alaska, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

Then again when your state is inundated with Republican Clown Car candidates and Village Tire Swingers for two years out of every four, well you'd want to reach for an escape too.

StupidiNews!

• Rep. Gabrielle Giffords made her return to the House after her attempted assassination in January in order to vote to support the debt limit compromise.
• A record 12 percent of the US experienced "exceptional" drought conditions in July according to the National Drought Mitigation Center.
• Federal judge and civil rights icon Matthew Perry passed away on Friday just short of his 90th birthday, a legend in South Carolina's turbulent history of racial integration.
• Israeli officials say PM Benjamin Netanyahu wishes to move forward with accepting the US proposal for Palestinian peace talks based on Israel's 1967 borders.
• Apple's iCloud service is now in open beta for users as the company does battle with Google's cloud storage service.

Last Call

Meanwhile, the Koch brothers are really hoping you're too busy paying attention to the debt ceiling mess and screaming at the left so they can steal Wisconsin's recall elections.

As Politico reports, mailers have now turned up from Americans For Prosperity Wisconsin, addressed to voters in two of the Republican-held recall districts, where the elections will be held on August 9. The mailers ask recipients to fill out an absentee ballot application, and send it in -- by August 11, after Election Day for the majority of these races.

"These are people who are our 1's [solid Democrats] in the voterfile who we already knew," a Democratic source told Politico. "They ain't AFP members, that's for damn sure."

There are two other recall elections being held on August 16, targeting two Democratic incumbents, but they are both a distance away from the recipients of these particular mailers.

Furthermore, a close look at the mailer shows a continuation of irregularities that have already involved conservative groups and absentee ballots in the state.

The mailing address for the applications is listed as "Absentee Ballot Application Processing Center, P.O. Box 1327, Madison WI 53701-1327." A Google search shows that this address is not any sort of government office, but has been used by the conservative group Wisconsin Family Action.

In addition, Wisconsin Right To Life previously used the same address for absentee ballot application letters and phone calls that were sent out shortly before the July 12 Democratic primaries, but after the official deadlines for the applications. The group responded to criticism, saying the phone calls were intended to be for the general elections in August.

Calls placed by TPM to Americans For Prosperity Wisconsin, and to Wisconsin Family Action, were not immediately returned.

Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap.  Republicans know that if people actually vote, they lose...so they cheat. Shave off a couple thousand absentee ballots by assuring they show up after the deadline, that might be the difference a week from Tuesday.

The problem is how many folks are targeted by scams like this and they go unreported.  But this is what corporate money does to our election system, folks.

It needs to be stopped.

Nuked Gingrich, Part 8

Newt Gingrich continues to run the worst campaign for anything ever.  He bragged about his million plus Twitter followers, giving him twice as many as Sarah Palin, and more than the entire rest of the 2012 GOP field by multiple times.  It means of course he's the "People's candidate" with the most awesome social networking skills.

Naturally, it also means he's lying out of his ass.

Newt employs a variety of agencies whose sole purpose is to procure Twitter followers for people who are shallow/insecure/unpopular enough to pay for them. As you might guess, Newt is most decidedly one of the people to which these agencies cater.

About 80 percent of those accounts are inactive or are dummy accounts created by various "follow agencies," another 10 percent are real people who are part of a network of folks who follow others back and are paying for followers themselves (Newt's profile just happens to be a part of these networks because he uses them, although he doesn't follow back), and the remaining 10 percent may, in fact, be real, sentient people who happen to like Newt Gingrich. If you simply scroll through his list of followers you'll see that most of them have odd usernames and no profile photos, which has to do with the fact that they were mass generated. Pathetic, isn't it?

Yep, 90% of Newtie's Twitter followers are fake or bought accounts.  That's how you run a "grassroots" campaign, GOP style.  Just like everything else about Republicans, it's 90% bullshit.

Stuck In The Past

Hey Republicans?  If you don't want people thinking some of you may not be telling the truth when you vehemently declare there's no possible way you could be remotely considered racist, let's not use the perjorative "tar baby" to refer to the nation's first black President, mmmkay? Think Progress:

Appearing on the Caplis and Silverman radio show last Friday, Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) said, “Now I don’t even want to have to be associated with [Obama], it’s like touching a tar baby and you’re stuck, you’re part of the problem now. You can’t get away.” The term “tar baby” is often considered a slur towards African Americans. Indeed, the term has such a derogatory history that the Oxford American dictionary revamped its definition to reflect the word’s racial undertones. If Lamborn wishes to cross-check, he should ask both then-Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA) and Sen. John McCain (R-MA) — both of whom caught controversy for uttering the distasteful phrase.

And as TP notes, it's not like this is the first time Republicans have used the phrase in reference to President Obama.  Feigning ignorance here, especially by a sitting member of Congress, is not an excuse. 

But then again, what do you expect?  Can't help themselves.

Land Of The Rising Core Temperature, Part 37

Meanwhile, some brutally depressing perspective from Japan as the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster has by no means "just gone away".

Tokyo Electric Power Co., operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant, said it detected the highest radiation to date at the site.

Geiger counters, used to detect radioactivity, registered more than 10 sieverts an hour, the highest reading the devices are able to record, Junichi Matsumoto, a general manager at the utility, said today. The measurements were taken at the base of the main ventilation stack for reactors No. 1 and No. 2.

The Fukushima plant, about 220 kilometers (137 miles) north of Tokyo, had three reactor meltdowns after the March 11 magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami knocked out power and backup generators. Radiation leaks displaced 160,000 people and contaminated marine life and agricultural products.

The utility, known as Tepco, tried to vent steam and gas the day after the earthquake as pressure in reactor No. 1 exceeded designed limits. A buildup of hydrogen gas subsequently caused an explosion that blew out part of the reactor building.

“I suspect the high radiation quantity was an aftermath of venting done,” Matsumoto told reporters in Tokyo. “The plant is not running. I don’t think any gas with high radiation level is flowing in the stack.” 

Yes, TEPCO doesn't think enough radiation to outright kill a human in 15-20 minutes coming out of the vent shaft is a problem.  And please note we're not sure how much the actual radiation is because the friggin Geiger counter doesn't go any higher, you've pegged the damn thing out when you vented that stuff out into the environment.

Absolutely wonderful.  You think our government is incompetent and trying to kill you, well...here you go.

Hello Admiral Obvious, Here Is Your Recipe For Disaster

A state-funded residential program designed to teach young adults how to live safe, productive lives mixes 16-year old-girls in foster care with sex offenders in their 20s.

The program groups juvenile offenders — including registered sex offenders — with foster teens. Each person in the program lives alone in one of 15 apartments in a building on West University, near Kellogg and Seneca.

Dorothy Loyd, vice president for transitional living services at Ozanam Pathways, the nonprofit provider that operates the program, said Ozanam isn't the only provider that commingles offenders and foster teens. It occurs at programs across the state, Loyd said. Ozanam is following state policies, she said.

"If the program is guilty of anything," Loyd said, "it's for taking kids that nobody wants to work with."

So let me get this straight in my head.  Mixing teenage girls with low self-esteem and sex offenders at just the right age to lead them astray is okay because there is a lack of reporting?  And the defense is to say the kids are unwanted so it's okay?


The other people featured in the article make more sense.  Still, holy cow.  Just... holy cow.

Facebook Facepalm

It's time to do a massive Facebook friend-purge, Missouri teachers. A new bill signed into law by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon makes it illegal for students and teachers within the state to have private relationships on Facebook.

We should note that the new law isn't targeting Facebook exclusively–or even social networks. The entire point of the legislation centers on curbing sexual misconduct between teachers and students. The "Amy Hestir Student Protection Act," named for a former Missouri public school student who was molested by a teacher decades prior, increases penalties for school districts that fail to report abuse allegations within a timely manner and fail to disclose instances of past abuse by former staff members.

Steps to protect kids from predators is great if it makes sense (for example, mandated reporting).  The Facebook restriction is stupid.  Facebook is a communication tool, and laws should not be used to replace good parenting or good judgment.  If parents want to see what their kids are doing on Facebook they (theoretically) have the right to check it out.  Just because some parents find it uncomfortable or unpleasant to monitor their kids and their activities does not make it appropriate to restrict communication.  This is like saying thou shalt not use Yahoo messenger or email, as Facebook is just a slight step away from those services. Meanwhile, thousands of healthy and productive interactions are hindered by good old Jay Nixon.  We should be grateful, really, that he is willing to step in and save us from ourselves. 


In Jay's honor (though he will not be alone for long) a new tag is created: Jackass. 

No Dealing On The Debt Ceiling, Part 48

Today, both parties try to sell the Big Deal(tm) to their respective caucuses with votes today.  With some 40 hours until the deadline, time is of the essence.  But in no way is everyone on board.

Urbandale, Iowa -- Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann issued the following response to President Obama's statement on the proposed debt limit deal:

"Mr. President, I'm not sure what voice you're listening to, but I can assure you that the voice of the American people wasn't the 'voice that compelled Washington to act.' It was you that got us into this mess, and it was you who wanted a $2.4 trillion dollar blank check to get you through the election. Everywhere I travel across the country, Americans want less spending, lower taxes to create jobs, and they don't want us to raise the debt ceiling.

"The President continues to press for a 'balanced approach,' which everyone knows is code for increased spending and taxes. Throughout this process the President has failed to lead and failed to provide a plan. The 'deal' he announced spends too much and doesn't cut enough. This isn't the deal the American people 'preferred' either, Mr. President. Someone has to say no. I will."

First of all how does a $2.4 trillion blank check work?  Second of all, for us not to raise the debt ceiling, we would have to go back and rework the 2010 budget resolution which already passed, and we would have to cut Social Security and Medicare.  Thirdly, raising the debt ceiling is so we can meet the obligations that Congress itself directed us to take, not to create additional spending.  Bachmann's simply lying about things.

Cinci-Hottie

After nearly setting an all time wettest month record in April, Cincinnati may be about to set a summer heat wave record for most consecutive days hitting 90 degrees or more.

Sunday was the 15th consecutive day the area had a high temperature of 90 degrees or more. The high was 93. The record - set back in 1901 - is 17 straight days.

Jim Lott, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wilmington, said "it looks like we got a good shot at" breaking the record this week. He said the high temperature today will be around 92 and Tuesday will have a high of 93. There's no chance of precipitation on either of those days.

Lott said there is a chance of showers and thunderstorms during the day on Wednesday.

"Depending on when those storms get in, they could affect the temperature," he said. "Right now we're forecasting a high of 91 degrees. But ... if the rain comes a little sooner then we're thinking we might not make it to 91. But right now it looks like we have a chance to make it."

As the hot weather continues, air pollution remains an issue.

A smog alert has been extended through today for Hamilton, Butler, Clermont and Warren counties in Ohio and Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties in Northern Kentucky.

Oh and the extended forecast into August?  Hitting 90 or close to it for the next ten days.  All time records for rain, now records for heat.  I know weather events are not climate events, but these are some scary weather events.

Collection Connection

Cash-strapped states are getting serious about collecting sales taxes from internet vendors, and they have a voice in Washington in Sen. Dick Durbin, who has introduced a bill to set federal standards for online taxation.

Struggling with weak economies, states will lose an estimated $10 billion this year and $11.4 billion next year in sales taxes that go uncollected on online purchases, according to studies by three professors at the University of Tennessee.

Although the fate of the bill by Democratic Senator Dick Durbin was uncertain given the anti-tax environment on Capitol Hill, his measure is backed by the National Governors Association and the National Retail Federation and even earned a pledge of cooperation from giant online retailer Amazon.

"It's being brought to a head by actions at the state level," said Indiana state Senator Luke Kenley, who heads the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board, a group of 24 states that has been lobbying Congress to enact a uniform sales tax for all retailers -- online and bricks and mortar alike.

Also pushing the issue to the forefront has been the sheer size of the online retail market -- $165 billion last year, according to Bernstein Research, which predicts 15 percent annual growth over the next decade.

"Online sales are growing exponentially and this loophole is creating winners and losers based on the tax code," says Jason Brewer of the Retail Industry Leaders Association, a trade group in favor of federal rules.

Durbin argued his bill involved no new taxes and applied only to taxes already imposed by the states that are not being collected. His goal is to provide states with the clear authority to require retailers to collect sales taxes already owed, treat all retailers equally regarding sales tax collection, and release consumers, currently expected to calculate and send in the taxes themselves, from that responsibility.

That last point is important, and exactly why the GOP will kill it and say we can't raise taxes ever blah blah blah when the reality is these are taxes states should be collecting but can't, because there's no federal laws regulating the mess.  Retailers will say "we don't want to collect sales taxes, we can undercut our competition that way."

So we'll see how far this goes.  My honest opinion is nowhere.

StupidiNews!

• Mexican police say captured suspected Juarez drug cartel leader Jose "El Diego" Hernandez may have ordered up to 1,500 killings.
• The EPA is using new pollutant rules to take on natural gas fracking as the Obama administration wants to lay down ground rules on the process.
• Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak may not attend his own trial this week due to health reasons, according to Egypt's information ministry.
• Apple has taken over the number one spot in smartphone market share beating out Nokia in second quarter sales.
• According to a new theory, the entire universe can be summed up as a two-dimensional projection similar to a hologram.