caucus - to fight back and for what we believe in. If we do that, I think our losses will be much less [in 2010] than what anybody suspects." - Ed Rendell, Link
If you watched America Idol lthe other night, they showed how the very poorest Americans live. They went to West Virginia and Mississippi and they showed extreme, lowest-of-the-low poverty.
You want to see what evil looks like?
Excerpt:
One after another, shortly after a diagnosis of breast cancer, each of the women learned that her health insurance had been canceled. First there was Yenny Hsu, who lived and worked in Los Angeles. Later, Robin Beaton, a registered nurse from Texas. And then, most recently, there was Patricia Relling, a successful art gallery owner and interior designer from Louisville, Kentucky.
None of the women knew about the others. But besides their similar narratives, they had something else in common: Their health insurance carriers were subsidiaries of WellPoint, which has 33.7 million policyholders -- more than any other health insurance company in the United States.
The women all paid their premiums on time. Before they fell ill, none had any problems with their insurance. Initially, they believed their policies had been canceled by mistake.
They had no idea that WellPoint was using a computer algorithm that automatically targeted them and every other policyholder recently diagnosed with breast cancer. The software triggered an immediate fraud investigation, as the company searched for some pretext to drop their policies, according to government regulators and investigators.
Think how different America would be if "people" like the vulgar Pigboy and Glenn Beck and the FOX News bastards went after the evil sons of bitches instead of liberals, blacks and the poor?
That last year of haggling and bitching and obstruction by Republicans to stop reform was on behalf of WellPoint and every other health insurer scum out there trying to stick to you. Republicans were protecting the health insurance industry's right to mess with your life. To kill you actually.
As for you pointy-headed teabaggers who carry signs calling for Obama to not touch health care, he might have saved your life or that of someone close to you. Sadly, you're too bloody ignorant to either know or understand.
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"Look I'm sorry I told you to go fuck yourself last week. I know that I criticize you and Fox News a lot, but only because you're truly a terrible, cynical, disingenuous news organization." - Jon Stewart, who has been ON FIRE lately.
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Wisco: People in glass news networks shouldn't throw stones.
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Today In Banking Scams
In Afghanistan today, in the midst of war and endemic poverty, an ancient tradition--banned when the Taliban were in power--has re-emerged across the country. It's called Bacha Bazi, translated literally as "boy play." Hundreds of boys, some as young as eleven, street orphans or boys bought from poor families by former warlords and powerful businessmen, are dressed in woman's clothes, taught to sing and dance for the entertainment of male audiences, and then sold to the highest bidder or traded among the men for sex. With remarkable access inside a Bacha Bazi ring operating in Northern Afghanistan, Najibullah Quraishi, an Afghan journalist, investigates this practice, still illegal under Afghan law, talking with the boys, their families, and their masters, exposing the sexual abuse and even murders of the boys, and documenting how Afghan authorities responsible for stopping these crimes are sometimes themselves complicit in the practice.
"Those are chickens we're trading to Dr. Schmuel An American Islamic extremist group has posted an internet threat to South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker for allegedly mocking Muhammed.
The governor of Oklahoma is considering tough new abortion bills that would allow doctors to withhold test results showing fetal defects and require women to answer intrusive questions.
The results of the questionnaires would be posted online.
Women would also be required to have a vaginal ultrasound and listen to a detailed description of the embryo or fetus in a third bill passed by the legislature on Monday.
So let me get this straight. If a woman in Oklahoma thinks she is pregnant, she can go in for "testing"…but she won't get to know all the results. And she has to fill out a form so her sexual history can be posted on the web. And she's going to get a pointless ultrasound and a lecture scripted by the likes of Prolife across America.
Why would anyone do that?
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I thought this was funny.
Yesterday around noon, DougJ at Balloon Juice wrote:
All about the Benjamins
I'm pretty sure that the new $100 bills will produce some kind of wingnut freakout.
The most obvious angle is "they look like European money!", but we may also see some chatter about jack-booted Federal thugs coming to take back all the old hundreds.
Then, a few hours later, on the Drudge Report:
All which makes the following line so true…
They're just too easy. You can pre-mock them now.
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There's a different set of rules for the super-rich than for you and me, and one of the reasons they stay super-rich is because of those rules:
One of the directors of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS: News ) told a hedge-fund billionaire about a $5 billion investment by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKa: News ) before a public announcement was made, the Wall Street Journal reported citing a person close to the situation.The report noted that the Government suspects that Goldman Director told Galleon of Berkshire's 2008 investment. The report specified that the information came from board member Rajat Gupta and that federal prosecutors has notified Gupta in a letter that they had intercepted phone conversations between him and Galleon's Rajaratnam.
Apparently there are still a few SEC members working and not surfing porn during office hours.
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Aw, poor Stephen Baldwin (the untalented, wingnut one) had to file for bankruptcy. I guess that's what God had planned for him, right?
Stephen Baldwin's career has sailed into a perfect storm of bankruptcy, Jesus-freakiness, and unemployment, that has culminated in the best website we've seen in a long time, The Restoration Of Stephen Baldwin.
Run by "someone Stephen nor his staff have ever met", the site's sole mission is to raise money for Baldwin, whose career and personal income have hit a low point, no thanks to his Christianity. So sayeth the Q & A on the site "When he became an outspoken Christian in 2002 his income went down by 70% when he refused roles with gratuitous sex and violence." We sayeth, you should have asked for a higher salary on Bio-Dome, dude, and put that money in the bank. We're not knocking his beliefs, we're just skeptical that they're being blamed for his downfall - look at Mel Gibson, who hasn't compromised his Christianity. He made the hugely successful Passion Of The Christ and has all the birth-uncontrolled sex he wants in the name of the Lord.
However, if you're a huge Baldwin fan and feel bad for his financial situation, the site welcomes any and all donations. Just remember, this is the guy who baptized Spencer Pratt on I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here. If he's the second coming and Spencer is one of his disciples, we plan to sit this one out.
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Weird Scenes Inside the Teabag, Part II: http://brilliantatbreakfast.blogspot.com/2010/04/weird-scenes-inside-teabag-part-ii.html
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Party of Hoover - the "Gunga Din" of Wall Street
Sure, it is.
The rig had been taking on water from the firefighting efforts.
Petty Officer Tom Atkeson said on Thursday that the rig sank "sometime this morning."
"We have multiple vessels on scene — all response vessels — and they are on scene there to help to mitigate the effects of the pollution," Petty Officer Atkeson said in a telephone interview. He added that it was not clear how much oil had spilled into the ocean.
Nor was it immediately clear what, if any, environmental implications the rig's collapse would have.
