...plus Mormons and the ACORN time machine!
Too many tabs—time to clear the queue! Here's a handful of right-wing disconnect:
Daugaard Headlines Huffington Post: Governor Dennis Daugaard is getting national press as the latest Republican governor to reject the chance to boost his local economy and save lives by accepting the Medicaid expansion offered by the Affordable Care Act. Governor Daugaard says those over 40,000 South Dakotans who would benefit from the Medicaid expansion are all able-bodied adults who can pay their own way. Governor Daugaard insists that South Dakota already covers children and the disabled. HuffPo counters:
Although South Dakota does provide Medicaid coverage to some adults with disabilities and some children, the benefits are available only to very poor people. A single adult with a disability who earns more than $674 a month or owns more than $2,000 in assets can't qualify for coverage, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Children can't get benefits from Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program if they come from families with incomes above 140 percent of poverty, which is $26,726 for a family of three this year [Jeffrey Young, "Dennis Daugaard, South Dakota Governor, Rejects Obamacare Medicaid Expansion," Huffington Post, 2012.12.05].
If I were on my own, $674 a month might get me a place to live and noodles in Spearfish. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't get me health insurance that would keep me out of bankruptcy.
Judge Junks Jindal Vouchers: Governor Louisiana Judge Tim Kelley declared Governor Bobby Jindal's school voucher program unconstitutional. Alas, the decision wasn't based on the silliness of spending public dollars to promote the mythology of creationism. Nor did it say the state can't do vouchers at all; in Louisiana, vouchers can't come from the Minimum Foundation Program, which the Louisiana constitution dedicates to public schools. But conservative Judge Kelley joins the voters of South Dakota and Idaho in kicking ideologically motivated education "reform" in the shins.
More Religious Whackos Coming to Southern Black Hills: Some rightwingers who want to disconnect themselves completely from the culture are flocking to our fair state. Warren Jeffs's fundamentalist polygamist cult of fundamentalist Mormons is adding buildings to its compound 15 miles southwest of Pringle. The Texas attorney general is trying to confiscate their over two-square-mile compound in Texas. Some of the fundie Mormons may bring their child brides to join the couple-three hundred cultists hiding out here. Secluded polygamy and brainwashing of young girls... that's what you get when you let discrimination against women masquerade as theology.
Time Travelers Rig Obama Election: Public Policy Polling finds that 49% of Republicans say that ACORN stole this year's election for President Obama. That's down just three points from the 52% of Republicans who said the same thing right after the 2008 election... when the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now still existed. ACORN filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on November 2, 2010.
My sole question: How is attacking polygamy any different than attacking any other sort of marriage? I was expecting a different approach (erroneously, I must now unfortunately concede) from an advocate for marriage equality.
Elliot, I am also a supporter of polygamy in a perfect libertarian world.
However, I think Cory was denigrating the "cultural" practices of these cults that are banned by other codified laws in the U.S. (even though polygamy IS illegal in all 50 states as well).
If women were allowed an equal share of survivor rights and the human rights to divorce or leave the compounds if they wish.
The compound by Custer is guarded by towers manned with assault rifles. Good luck ladies.
Sorry missed a clause in the penultimate paragraph at the end: , polygamy would be much more defensible.
Also, 49%? wtf?
That would seem to imply that about a quarter of the voting population are imbeciles. I would hate to see what % of SD's state legislators believe that. I wonder if Kristi Noem knows that ACORN doesn't exist.
Then make private health insurance more affordable, Daugaard.
Justin offers one good level of opposition to the power practices of the cult (and Elliot's sophistry). The guard tower symbolizes that the relationships in the compound are based on coercion, not common respect, dignity, and equality.
Jenny, Denny would say to you, "You're an adult. You don't need my help." Self-reliance for everyone!... including South Dakota!... which gets 44% of its state revenue from the federal government!
Jana, my family's private health insurance premiums are more than my mortgage and car payment combined! That's with a $2000 deductible, 30/70 co-insurance, and no eye or dental coverage. So yeah, I can see how those able-bodied working poor are lazy. sarcasm!
Bingo, Moore. There are lots of people working hard but who don't the wages they need to cover health care. Our obligation is to help our neighbors, not marginalize them by accusing them of being lazy.
ND rep-elect: God killed the dinosaurs so we can burn fossil fuels.
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/271097-nd-rep-elect-named-to-natural-resources-and-science-committees
It would be interesting to know how may of the 40,000 who would qualify under the expanded coverage would already have private insurance and thus have state coverage as secondary insurance that would cover what's left after primary insurance.
I pay $534.00 a month for health insurance - and I'm lucky it's so cheap. That's with the standard $3,000 out of pocket and deductible. So yeah, if I only made $674 a month, I could really live high on the hog. Not.
Personally, I'm fed up with the "health care is like any other commodity" line. It's not. When your husband is dying of a heart attack (which mine was) you don't ask is there a cheaper treatment/way to the hospital/ or anything else (which is why he survived). People DIE if they do not get certain kinds of health care. There's nothing else, except perhaps food, with that repercussion if you can't get it or pay for it. Basically, the health insurance companies, and the health care providers, have us all over a barrel, and they know it. And the people who are making the laws and policies all have either complete health care coverage (at our expense) or are multi-millionaires. (Mitch McConnell is worth $17 million - I don't want to hear one more word from him about austerity.)
our Governor's "able bodied" comment is truly disgusting. I know many folks who are working 2 or 3 jobs just to pay their regular bills (and they don't live high on the hog), and still have to rely on SNAP and/or Medicaid if a health issue arises.
Maybe the Gov should start recruiting businesses into this state that actually pay a living wage, so that folks don't have to rely on SNAP/Medicaid.
And comparing health care to other commodities? I can "live" without cable TV, or other perks. I can't have a good quality of life without health care.
@CardinalDolan
God is constantly revealing himself to us. He whispers to us, he doesn't shout--Advent invites us to listen and discover His grace and mercy
Retweeted by Stace Nelson
Folks who are working and can't afford health care are going to be less productive as well. They don't go to the hospital until things are so bad they cant function in many cases. Simple problems that can be taken care of with a doctor visit are just overlooked and lived with, sometimes even spread to co-workers. In many ways it is easier to get basic care for simple things in a third world country than it is in the USA.
You've not been to a third world country with that statement Barry. I don't like the system any more than the next person. I know folks who dropped their employer funded insurance because they had to pay $85/month and they could get into emergency care without a waiting room wait like the rest of us insured had to endure.
Dairy, trades, and service workers organize and unite!
Les what I am talking about is simple health care ie. antibiotic availability, care for minor incidents and the like. Not all third world counties are same either , but I have relatives in Central America who tell me that simple care at clinics is available to anyone no payment required.
You guys keep wanting to throw more money at the system without doing anything about the AMA thugs, the class action lawsuits, the drug companies... The system needs fixed. I don't even go to the doctor because he/she can't prescribe anything a pharmaceutical company doesn't make a profit on.
I agree 100% Barry, anti biotic s are over the counter in Mexico. The Feds have taken away supplements I used successfully for cardio health and they continue to make runs at controlling the vitamins and herbal use. It's all about the money and control which makes the money.
It is the simple and preventative care that would save our nations bacon on health care. It'll never happen.
The Native vote and a Libertarian Party gubernatorial candidate elected another Democrat as governor of Montana. What fun it would be to have a three-way race in the chemical toilet come '14.
The libertarians need to pick a party, one or the other in my opinion. It's the idea that matters.
Not to worry Les. Eventually we will have a single payer system. Eventually the votes will be there.
Okay, Rounds supporter, whatever you say. How's his buddy Daschle doing?
http://abc.go.com/watch/2020/SH559026/VD55250801/2020-1123-breaking-polygamy-secrets-of-the-sect This is life at the FLDS community on the border of Utah and Arizona. Warren Jeffs is in prison but yet he controls these groups. To include the one in SD I am willing to bet. Here is the story from CNN's 360 show Thursday night. http://www.cnn.com/video/?collection=Anderson_Cooper_360&hpt=hp_tvvideo#/video/us/2012/12/07/ac-tuchman-flds-child-labor.cnn CNN has had stories about this group for years and yet the law continues to ignore child abuse.
Daugaard has his government health insurance. He doesn't have to worry about affordability. It's the 'screw the working class people of SD', is what he's saying. Don't you people get it in SD?
Woster: Weiland weighs Daugaard plan that shifts burden to counties.
http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/expanding-medicaid-a-question-of-better-health-worries-about-costs/article_3ff5584f-cc4a-5136-95ba-287bc2da1852.html