Last Call For The Dumbest Thing On The Ballot Today

Sorry, Katy, Texas.  You guys need a $69 million high school football stadium about as much as I need pap smears.

Voters in the Houston suburb of Katy will decide Tuesday whether to approve a bond package that includes $69.5 million for a new, 14,000-seat football stadium.

The stadium would serve Katy's powerhouse program, but district officials also say they could attract playoff games and other events. It's on the ballot one year after the Dallas suburb of Allen opened a $60 million stadium with 18,000 seats and dozens of concession stands.

The $99 million in bonds would also pay for a $25 million expansion of an agricultural sciences center and $4.5 million for a science and technology center.

Oh good.  That's nice.  Hey listen, you guys realize Texas has cut public education spending by about 25% since 2009, right?  I mean hell, why would we want to spend all $99 million on education instead of competitive concussion development?

But here's the best part:

Some local tea party members oppose the bond package, saying the district shouldn't take on more debt.

Why do tea party Republicans hate Texas high school football?

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/05/3732370/houston-suburb-to-vote-on-69m.html#storylink=cpy

A Game Of Word Appropriation

Rand Paul explains the difference between the Makers and the Takers.  Other people make articles, Rand Paul takes the words as his own.

Sections of an op-ed Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul wrote on mandatory minimums in The Washington Times in September appear nearly identical to an article by Dan Stewart of The Week that ran a week earlier. The discovery comes amid reports from BuzzFeed that Paul plagiarized in his book and in several speeches.

Paul also delivered testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept. 16, 2013, that included the copied sections.

So, does this make him a moocher or a looter?   Please Republicans, please nominate this ridiculous clown show as your 2016 pick for the White House.

PS, why didn't anyone in the Village figure out Rand Paul was lifting speeches and policy positions wholesale from other authors before, or were you too busy regaling the world with how awesome and principled the guy is?

Jackasses.

We Mayor May Not Have The Streetcar Plan In Cincy

Cincinnati's streetcar plan is the chief issue in today's mayoral election, and Vice Mayor Roxanne Qualls wants to continue the project started under Mayor Mark Mallory.  CityBeat here in town backs her for the streetcar and for a number of reasons:

The streetcar project has already effectively been supported by two voter referendums, and the situation has progressed to the point that stopping the project could end up costing more than finishing it, a ridiculous proposition, not to mention the sign it would send to people currently investing in Cincinnati’s progress as a forward-thinking, economically growing city.

But CityBeat’s support for Roxanne Qualls goes further than the streetcar project or any other single issue.

During the past six years, Qualls has been part of the true revitalization of downtown and Over-the-Rhine that too many of Cranley’s supporters — and sometimes Cranley himself — publicly doubted. Anyone who’s been downtown in the past couple years has seen the result of Qualls’ work with the rest of City Council: a flourishing riverfront, an Over-the-Rhine bustling with new businesses and restaurants, and a downtown that can’t get new apartments quickly enough to meet demand.

Despite Cranley’s attempts to distance himself from some of the worst of the urban doubters, there’s a profound concern that a Cranley victory would send a message to all of the city’s detractors that voters are embracing their defeatist direction.

The Cincinnati Enquirer however backs her opponent, John Cranley.

During his nine years on council, he not only reached across party lines, he drove to fellow council members’ homes and sat in their kitchens courting their votes. The next day, on a different issue, he’d find new allies and build an entirely different coalition.

The city needs his directness. Ask Cranley what he thinks about an issue, and he’ll tell you.

Or don’t ask him, and he’ll still tell you. His frankness can be bracing, but it will also be refreshing after the excessive control Mayor Mark Mallory exerted over the council agenda, curbing public debate and, in the end, serving citizens poorly. We’re disappointed that Qualls, as vice mayor, didn’t challenge his actions more forcefully.

The city needs Cranley’s passion. A real estate attorney by profession, he is a salesman at heart. It’s second nature to him to convince people of things. In a mayor, that skill can’t be overrated. Cincinnati has long needed a leader who could articulate a bold vision for the city and then roll up his sleeves and get out and pitch it to the masses. Neither will Cranley be shy about courting new businesses, selling Cincinnati to conventioneers or national media, or building a regional coalition to lobby for expanded service at CVG, the Brent Spence Bridge replacement or the I-71/Martin Luther King interchange – an idea he championed.

Cranley often talks about emulating powerful mayors like Michael Bloomberg of New York or Andrew Young, who once led Atlanta. That’s the type of energetic, game-changing leadership Cincinnati needs right now. One of Cranley’s best traits is that he’s not one to watch and wait from the sidelines.

Needless to say, anyone the Enquirer backs (with their raging hatred of the city's first elected black mayor in Mallory) is the wrong choice for the city.   Qualls has the good to back up her claims.  Cranley doesn't.  The problem is the race is already ugly, and with a state Supreme Court decision on ballot language necessitating early and absentee voters having to vote again (and possibly being disenfranchised as a result) it's anyone's ball game.

If you're reading from Cincy, go vote.

StupidiNews, Election Day Edition!

Voters across the country go to the polls today for a number of state and local races, including governor's races in New Jersey and Virginia, and mayoral races in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Houston, New York, Detroit, Minneapolis and right here in Cincinnati.  In other news...

• Authorities now believe the suspect in yesterday's closing time mall shooting in Paramus, NJ is dead after police found the 20-year-old killed by a self-inflicted gunshot.
• A number of ballot initiatives go before voters today, including 11 Colorado counties voting to start the process of seceding from the Centennial State and creating North Colorado.
• Portland, Maine voters will determine whether or not the city will become the first in an East Coast state to legalize marijuana. 
• The SEC has settled with hedge fund giant SAC for a $1.8 billion insider trading fine and an agreement that the firm can no longer invest other people's money outside of billionaire founder Steve Cohen.
• The newest technology for enterprise data storage is helium-filled hard drives, offering as much as 50% more storage space for the same drive size.

Remember to check the local issues where you live today and get out there and vote!

Last Call For A SCOTUS Punt

Looks like the Supreme Court has taken a pass on Oklahoma's law banning pharmaceutical abortions, letting a lower court ruling stand finding that particular part of the law unconstitutional.

In an important, if likely temporary, victory for abortion rights, the Supreme Court took a major abortion case off its docket on Monday. The Court’s brief order does not explain the justices’ reason for doing so — it simply provides that “[t]he writ of certiorari is dismissed as improvidently granted. Nevertheless, it is likely that the justices decided that a recent Oklahoma Supreme Court decision muddied the issues presented by the case to such an extent that it made sense to wait to decide an important question regarding the ability of states to restrict the use of medication abortions. 

Though the Supreme Court agreed to hear Cline v. Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice earlier this year, it also asked Oklahoma’s highest court to resolve two questions regarding the scope of an Oklahoma law banning certain forms of non-surgical abortions induced by medication. Last Tuesday, Oklahoma’s justices answered these questions by explaining that the state law at issue in Cline outlaws all medication abortions — including methods of terminating a pregnancy that were specifically approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration. Thus, if the U.S. Supreme Court were to rule on Cline they would have to answer the much larger question of whether an abortion procedure that’s specifically been approved by the federal government can be banned by a state, rather than considering a narrower question of whether specific methods of abortion lacking FDA sanction can be targeted by states.

So it's something at least.  And yes, SCOTUS would of had to rule very strongly in favor of the federal supremacy clause in the case of Cline.  No way were the conservative justices going to give a victory that big to the pro-choice side, so they punt instead.

And on we go.

Insurance Companies Are Still The Obamacare Bad Guys

Suddenly, Republicans are very, very concerned about people having their insurance policies canceled and being stuck with "substantially" more expensive plans.  But the reality is the insurance companies are happily using Obamacare as a smokescreen to screw their customers over every chance they get.  TPM's Dylan Scott discovers the truth as he investigates the case of Donna, a Washington State resident who got a cancellation notice from her insurer.

Across the country, insurance companies have sent misleading letters to consumers, trying to lock them into the companies' own, sometimes more expensive health insurance plans rather than let them shop for insurance and tax credits on the Obamacare marketplaces -- which could lead to people like Donna spending thousands more for insurance than the law intended. In some cases, mentions of the marketplace in those letters are relegated to a mere footnote, which can be easily overlooked. 

The extreme lengths to which some insurance companies are going to hold on to existing customers at higher price, as the Affordable Care Act fundamentally re-orders the individual insurance market, has caught the attention of state insurance regulators. 

The insurance companies argue that it's simply capitalism at work. But regulators don't see it that way. By warning customers that their health insurance plans are being canceled as a result of Obamacare and urging them to secure new insurance plans before the Obamacare launched on Oct. 1, these insurers put their customers at risk of enrolling in plans that were not as good or as affordable as what they could buy on the marketplaces. 

TPM has confirmed two specific examples where companies contacted their customers prior to the marketplace's Oct. 1 opening and pushed them to renew their health coverage at a higher price than they would pay through the marketplace. State regulators identified the schemes, but they weren't necessarily able to stop them. 

It's not yet clear how widespread this practice became in the months leading up to the marketplace's opening -- or how many Americans will end up paying more than they should be for health coverage. But misleading letters have been sent out in at least four states across the country, and one offending carrier, Humana, is a company with a national reach.

So at least some of these cancellation notices sent out by insurance companies were attempts to sucker  people into the most expensive plans they offer, automatically, before the protections of Obamacare kicked in fully.

Let's remember the practices that made the ACA necessary in the first place.  Republicans want to take us back to these bad old days across the country.  

Another ENDA Run Past Republican Hate

President Obama took to the Huffington Post this weekend to call for Congress to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

Here in the United States, we're united by a fundamental principle: we're all created equal and every single American deserves to be treated equally in the eyes of the law. We believe that no matter who you are, if you work hard and play by the rules, you deserve the chance to follow your dreams and pursue your happiness. That's America's promise. 

That's why, for instance, Americans can't be fired from their jobs just because of the color of their skin or for being Christian or Jewish or a woman or an individual with a disability. That kind of discrimination has no place in our nation. And yet, right now, in 2013, in many states a person can be fired simply for being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. 

As a result, millions of LGBT Americans go to work every day fearing that, without any warning, they could lose their jobs -- not because of anything they've done, but simply because of who they are. 

It's offensive. It's wrong. And it needs to stop, because in the United States of America, who you are and who you love should never be a fireable offense. 

That's why Congress needs to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, also known as ENDA, which would provide strong federal protections against discrimination, making it explicitly illegal to fire someone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. This bill has strong bipartisan support and the support of a vast majority of Americans. It ought to be the law of the land. 

Americans ought to be judged by one thing only in their workplaces: their ability to get their jobs done. Does it make a difference if the firefighter who rescues you is gay -- or the accountant who does your taxes, or the mechanic who fixes your car? If someone works hard every day, does everything he or she is asked, is responsible and trustworthy and a good colleague, that's all that should matter.

ENDA is definitely something that needs to be passed, but I'm 99.99% sure that as long as Republicans control the House, nothing's getting past the bigots in the GOP.  And please note, the "moderates" in the GOP will vote against ENDA as surely as they did last time.

This time may be different, hence that .01% chance this bill gets through the House, because it's looking like every single Democrat will back the Senate version of the bill coming up for a vote this month.  It also looks like a number of Senate Republicans will back the measure and get it past a guaranteed filibuster attempt. However, all that means is that ENDA will die in the House again, just like immigration reform, jobs bills, and so on.  Tea Party groups are already threatening to go after any Republican who votes for the measure and it's very possible the bill could collapse in the Senate as a result.

The vote could come as early as this week in the Senate and Harry Reid has promised action before Thanksgiving recess, so we'll see.

StupidiNews!

• Embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford apologized to his constituents but will not resign in the wake of revelations police have a video purportedly showing Ford smoking crack cocaine.
• German police say they have recovered more than 1,500 works of art looted by Nazis in the 30's and 40's and held by a Munich collector, with a total value of more than $1 billion.
• President Obama met this weekend with Iraqi PM Nouri al Malaki to discuss increased attacks on Baghdad and the surrounding area by Al Qaeda forces.
• Former Florida governor and Republican-turned-Democrat Charlie Crist says he'll run as a Democrat against Republican Rick Scott in 2014 in order to try to win his old job back.
• Predictions by scientists in the journal Nature has the world doubling its solid waste creation in just 12 years unless recycling is expanded in developing nations.

Last Call For The Evolution Of A Honey Boo Boo

Richard Dawkins has evolved into a self-parody, apparently.

World famous English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and unrelenting critic of religion and the religious, Richard Dawkins, has turned his anger on airport security rules after he had a jar of honey confiscated. 

Dawkins, who is no stranger to Twitter controversy following alleged anti-Muslim comments he made back in August, declared on the micro-blogging site that ‘Bin Laden has won, in airports of the world every day’after security took away his jar of honey. 

The outspoken atheist, who came to prominence with his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, criticised what he called ‘dundridges’ - his word for petty jobsworths - and described the confiscation of his honey as a 'STUPID waste.'

Honey.  A jar of freaking honey, and this guy goes bugnuts.  Somehow, I'm glad to be reminded that not everyone in the atheist/agnostic/nondeist camp has their head straight on either.

No, You Can't Keep That Land Mine Of A Policy

The NY Times editorial board makes a powerful argument as to why the whole "You can keep your policy" brouhaha is nothing but hot air:

Congressional Republicans have stoked consumer fears and confusion with charges that the health care reform law is causing insurers to cancel existing policies and will force many people to pay substantially higher premiums next year for coverage they don’t want. That, they say, violates President Obama’s pledge that if you like the insurance you have, you can keep it. 

Mr. Obama clearly misspoke when he said that. By law, insurers cannot continue to sell policies that don’t provide the minimum benefits and consumer protections required as of next year. So they’ve sent cancellation notices to hundreds of thousands of people who hold these substandard policies. (At issue here are not the 149 million people covered by employer plans, but the 10 million to 12 million people who buy policies directly on the individual market.) 

But insurers are not allowed to abandon enrollees. They must offer consumers options that do comply with the law, and they are scrambling to retain as many of their customers as possible with new policies that are almost certain to be more comprehensive than their old ones. 

Indeed, in all the furor, people forget how terrible many of the soon-to-be-abandoned policies were. Some had deductibles as high as $10,000 or $25,000 and required large co-pays after that, and some didn’t cover hospital care. 

This overblown controversy has also obscured the crux of what health care reform is trying to do, which is to guarantee that everyone can buy insurance without being turned away or charged exorbitant rates for pre-existing conditions and that everyone can receive benefits that really protect them against financial or medical disaster, not illusory benefits that prove inadequate when a crisis strikes.

But Republicans are against this.  Think about that for a second.  The Times then makes the real pitch that the administration basically can't say...

Many higher-income people who won’t qualify for subsidies, however, will have to buy policies providing more benefits than they want. Maternity care for those who will not have children is one sore point. But that is one price of moving toward universal coverage with comprehensive benefits. And some of these higher-income people could suffer a catastrophic accident or illness that would previously have bankrupted them, but will now be paid for by insurance.

DING DING DING.  

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why Republicans are in full panic mode.  It's why they shut down the government.  It's why they are pretending President Obama is the anti-Christ.   It's why they refuse to help fix the initial transition issues.  It's why red states are sabotaging their own exchange mechanisms.

Think about THAT for a moment.  Why are Republicans really so terrified of Obamacare?

Last Call For The Merchants Of Hate

It just never ends with the rage, the hatred, the rancor, and the killing.

The note that 23-year-old Paul Ciancia carried with him as he charged into Los Angeles International Airport and opened fire on Friday reportedly referenced right-wing conspiracy theories amid homophobic rants about former Department of Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano and other government officials.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a law enforcement source confirmed that he note contained racist, homophobic and sexist slurs aimed at government officials, security agencies, liberals and racial minorities.

Raw Story noted on Friday that police reported that Ciancia was carrying a document that referred to the “New World Order,” a favorite phrase of the conspiracy-minded right used to describe an amorphous group of world elites who seek to impose one world government on all people. Both Alex Jones and Glenn Beck have included the phrase in their rantings.

The SPLC said that “a knowledgeable source with ranking law enforcement contacts” had read Ciancia’s manifesto and that its contents placed him squarely in the right-wing “Patriot” movement of anti-government conservatives.

Mark Potok of the SPLC’s “Hatewatch” blog wrote, “So-called Patriots also increasingly see the DHS, which produces intelligence assessments of extremists that are distributed to other law enforcement agencies, as an enemy and even a collaborator in the New World Order conspiracy. Many believe DHS has targeted their movement and is somehow connected to the alleged construction of concentration camps by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).”

We'll see the right scream bloody murder again, that liberals are evil for even bringing this up, that only leftists would ever resort to violence and hatred, forever and ever amen and nothing will change.

Well, nothing will change until A) enough of us stand up to elect people who will pass and enforce laws to stop these events, or B) enough people with firearms start a second civil war.   Which one will happen first?  Honestly, no idea.

Metal Gear Stupid: Benghazi Revengance

Turns out last week's 60 Minutes "bombshell" report on Benghazi came from the imagination of the "eyewitness" to the attack on the diplomatic compound...who was never actually at the compound during the attack.  Matt Gertz at MMFA:

The Benghazi "witness" featured in a CBS 60 Minutes report that galvanized new discussion of the administration's response to the attack previously said he never got near the diplomatic compound on the night of the attack, according to a report from The Washington Post.

The revelation comes just days after Fox News reported that they had previously been using the same man as a source, but broke contact after he asked the network for money. Two days after the CBS report aired, Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon and Schuster that "specializes in conservative non-fiction," published the supposed witness' book, The Embassy House: The Explosive Eyewitness Account of the Libyan Embassy Siege by the Soldier Who Was There. According to the Post, the book "largely comports with the 60 Minutes account."

Together, these details paint a damning picture of the credibility of the supposed eyewitness -- and that of the CBS report which promoted his story.

Oops.  The guy was in it to sell his book and get famous.  And he used four dead Americans to do it.  Nice.

During the October 27 report, which was based on a year-long investigation by correspondent Lara Logan and producer Max McCellan, Logan described the man, identified as "Morgan Jones, a pseuodonym he's using for his own safety," as "a security officer who witnessed the attack." She explained that during the attack, "Jones scaled the twelve-foot high wall of the compound that was still overrun with al Qaeda fighters"; during an interview, he told her he had personally struck one of those terrorists in the face with his rifle butt. After the attack, "Jones" claimed in the report that he went to the Benghazi hospital and saw Ambassador Chris Stevens' body.

"Jones" also told CBS' audience that he had been worried about the compound coming under attack, and that Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, who died in the assault, had shared similar concerns with him. 

But according to the Post, "Jones," whose real name was confirmed as Dylan Davies, revealed none of those details in the incident report to his security contractor employer that he wrote following the attack. Instead, he wrote that he never got near the compound that night and learned of Stevens' death from a colleague.

I'm sure selling a book that's titled "The Explosive Eyewitness Account of the Libyan Embassy Siege by the Soldier Who Was There"when you weren't actually there is just a minor oversight.  Clearly this guy is an Obama plant!

Also, good job Lara Logan, you got conned and staked your career on this joker.   Great call for journalistic integrity.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Law enforcement officials are trying to determine why a 23-year old man apparently stormed terminal 3 at LA's airport and shot several people, killing a TSA agent in the process.
• New documents purportedly show how several European countries carry out mass surveillance of citizens while criticizing the United States for doing the same.
• Brazil is now worried that the bankruptcy of energy magnate Eike Batista, the largest in Latin America history, may be large enough to hurt funding for Rio's 2016 Summer Olympics.
• The fight to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana in the District of Colombia could be headed for Congress and the White House.
• The mystery of Google's converted San Francisco cargo container barge has apparently been solved:  the company calls it a "party deck" and showroom space for Google Glass.

Last Call For Avik Roy's Nadir

I've written numerous articles about Forbes's point man on anti-Obamacare propaganda, Avik Roy, and his ridiculous "estimates" about Obamacare.  But the man hits a new low with his insane claim that the Affordable Care Act will cost 93,000,000 Americans their health insurance.

Section 1251 of the Affordable Care Act contains what’s called a “grandfather” provision that, in theory, allows people to keep their existing plans if they like them. But subsequent regulations from the Obama administration interpreted that provision so narrowly as to prevent most plans from gaining this protection.

“The Departments’ mid-range estimate is that 66 percent of small employer plans and 45 percent of large employer plans will relinquish their grandfather status by the end of 2013,” wrote the administration on page 34,552 of the Register. All in all, more than half of employer-sponsored plans will lose their “grandfather status” and get canceled. According to the Congressional Budget Office, 156 million Americans—more than half the population—was covered by employer-sponsored insurance in 2013.

Another 25 million people, according to the CBO, have “nongroup and other” forms of insurance; that is to say, they participate in the market for individually-purchased insurance. In this market, the administration projected that “40 to 67 percent” of individually-purchased plans would lose their Obamacare-sanctioned “grandfather status” and get canceled, solely due to the fact that there is a high turnover of participants and insurance arrangements in this market. (Plans purchased after March 23, 2010 do not benefit from the “grandfather” clause.) The real turnover rate would be higher, because plans can lose their grandfather status for a number of other reasons.

How many people are exposed to these problems? 60 percent of Americans have private-sector health insurance—precisely the number that Jay Carney dismissed. As to the number of people facing cancellations, 51 percent of the employer-based market plus 53.5 percent of the non-group market (the middle of the administration’s range) amounts to 93 million Americans.

Except Roy is, as usual, completely full of crap.  What the administration was saying is that the estimates were simple:  the plans don't meet coverage standards, so they are getting replaced and won't be grandfathered.  Roy counts that as "canceled".  He then declares the notion that the replacement plans are better as a lie.

But that’s not true. Obamacare forces insurers to offer services that most Americans don’t need, don’t want, and won’t use, for a higher price. Bob Laszewski, in a revealing blog post, wrote about the cancellation of his own health coverage. “Right now,” he wrote, “I have ‘Cadillac’ health insurance. I can access every provider in the national Blue Cross network—about every doc and hospital in America—without a referral and without higher deductibles and co-pays.”

But his plan is being canceled. His new, Obamacare-compatible plan has a $500 higher deductible, and a narrower physician and hospital network that restricts out-of-town providers. And yet it costs 66 percent more than his current plan. “Mr. President,” he writes, “I really like my health plan and I would like to keep it. Can you help me out here?”

So Roy finds one guy and it's proof Obamacare doesn't work and that 93 million people will "lose their health coverage".  The lies never stop with this clown.  The reality:



Three percent of American adults is not 93 million, Avik.  Stop lying.  Thanks.

Deficit Reduction Ad Absurdum

Just a reminder that no, the deficit is not "exploding under Obama".

The federal budget deficit for fiscal 2013 was $680 billion, the Treasury Department reported Wednesday.

This is the first time that the deficit has fallen below $1 trillion during President Obama's time in the White House.

The monthly Treasury statement for September had been delayed by a government shutdown at the beginning of October. Fiscal 2013 ended on Sept. 30.

The deficit has dropped $409 billion from 2012, when it was $1.089 trillion.

Most of the change comes from higher tax receipts. Receipts rose to $2.77 trillion in 2013, up from $2.45 trillion in 2012. Spending was $3.45 trillion, down from $3.53 trillion in 2012.

White House Budget Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell hailed the deficit total, noting that the deficit is now less than half what it was in 2009, when it stood at $1.4 trillion in the wake of the recession.

So, yes, higher revenues and budget cuts have reduced the deficit.  Republicans of course want hundreds in billions in more cuts.  But higher revenues have kicked in, and the deficit has been cut in half.

You can, and should, make the argument that budget cuts continue to stifle growth.  We've been stuck in a weak recovery for years now recisely because we've cut so much spending at Republican insistence.

We've done what the GOP has demanded, cut, cut, cut the federal budget.  So where are the jobs and the economic growth they promised?

As yourself that as they demand more cuts.