Last updated on 2013.09.30
South Dakota state government doesn't like the Affordable Care Act. They say so right on the state's bare-bones health care reform website:
...South Dakota was a leader among states opposing PPACA, joining many other states in challenging the law in court.... Although Governor Daugaard hopes for the repeal of PPACA, the ruling requires the State of South Dakota to act in accordance with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act law being implemented by the Federal Government.
...Even though the state leaders oppose PPACA, South Dakotans need to understand how this law affects them ["Federal Health Care Reform in South Dakota," official state of South Dakota website, downloaded 2013.09.29].
Amidst a state website dedicated to plastering our leaders' faces and South Dakota photos everywhere, this health care reform information site doesn't have so much as a state logo or a friendly chart (oops: one table, with contact info for local agencies, including Interlakes Community Action, who will act as "navigators" to explain how ObamaCare will save you money!) If the state web dudes did include any pix, they'd be of sour grapes.
But you can really tell someone in Pierre hates the Affordable Care Act when you click on "How to Enroll." As of 23:10 CDT this evening, the state's link to the federal health care exchange is broken.
Come on, guys—quality control! I know the Governor is crabby, but you already got out of all sorts of work by shoving the work of helping South Dakotans get affordable health insurance back onto the feds. The least you can do is take the time to fix your HTML.
Repeat after me: https://www.healthcare.gov/.
Update 09:19 CDT: Link fixed! Someone got into the office and cleaned up the HTML. Well done, state webmaster!
Indeed, more proof that the republican cannot govern. They fail at all they do except for a couple of things, they lie, cheat and steal. Opps, how careless of me, guess there are really three things they are good at. Oh well ,these cry baby rabble can go pound sand as the proletariat will figure a way to see how badly this has worked out for our masters. Denny, you have screwed us in a bad way and Ms. NOem, I hope that you had a good party the other night with all the drinking with not a care in the world, while you take us to the edge. Thune, what can be said, you are just an empty empty suit, shameful all three.
I'm waiting for the stories, and subsequent calls to the politicians, on Tuesday when South Dakota's second largest industry is thrown in the ditch - closures will hit Mount Rushmore, Badlands, Wind Cave, Jewell Cave, Devils Tower; federal work will stop on pine beetle control, the XL pipeline, Tekla power line, etc. It's likely the work stoppage will affect agriculture at harvest time - perhaps with minimal federal operations at the ports, barrages, and Mississippi River locks and dams.
The republican's selfish, ill-conceived shutdown will cost South Dakota millions, the nation billions, and will shave 1.5% off the economy's growth the next quarter. How's that for the self-proclaimed "party of business".
John its not the 'party of business', its the big 'business party' then there is the rest of us.
Gordon Howie's brother Gary complains that he logged into an insurance quote website and found that he's too old to qualify for the insurance exchange. Um, duh! The ACA exchanges don't offer insurance to folks 65 and over, because they already enjoy guaranteed coverage under Medicare. Plus, Gary directs people to some bogus commercial website, healthcare.com, instead of the official exchange website, http://www.healthcare.gov . Some people are determined to spread misinformation.
I think that if I heard a conversation between Gordon and Gary it would go something like this. "Gordon, I am a typical republican, correct?" "Of course your are Gary, you are old, white and dumb, you fit all categories quite well" says Gordo as he stands in water to plug the well pump in.
If Republicans truly believed this to be bad for all, why not pave a road that all can follow to come to that same conclusion (then provide a better alternative). The GOP strategy of misinformation and fear only works for as long as nobody ever gets to see for themselves if it is true, I am ashamed that the state leaders are carrying the water for that strategy.
Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama said
"Believe not because some old manuscripts are produced, believe not because it is your national belief, believe not because you have been made to believe from your childhood, but reason truth out, and after you have analyzed it, then if you find it will do good to one and all, believe it, live up to it and help others live up to it."
Socrates said
"Know thyself."
"Wisdom begins in wonder."
"There is only one evil - ignorance."
Titus Lucretius Carus said
"Human kind throughout the lands lay miserably crushed before all eyes beneath religion."
Lucius Annaeus Seneca said
"Life is too short to figure out what it's all about, all by ourselves."
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful."
William of Conches said
"Because they know not the forces of nature, and in order that they may have comrades in their ignorance, they suffer not that others should search out anything, and would have us believe like rustics and ask no reason ... But we ask in all things a reason must be sought."
Galileo Galilei said
"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended us to forego their use and by some other means given us knowledge which we can attain by them."
Roger Williams said
"All civil states, with their officers of justice, in their respective constitutions and administrations, are proved essentially civil, and therefore not judges, governors, or defenders of the spiritual, or Christian, state and worship."
"A Pagan or Antichristian Pilot may be as skillful to carry the Ship to its desired Port, as any Christian Mariner or Pilot in the World, and may perform that work with as much safety and speed. God requireth not an Uniformity of Religion to be inacted and enforced in any Civil State."
Now I c and p'd those to make a point. Gordon and Gary are fond of doing the same thing, even when it is from a man that they wish but don't really understand. A man that they would love to be able to call a Christian but cant, and a man that they would never follow today because of his beliefs.
From todays "The Right Side" Thomas Jefferson said
“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” America needs to know the truth, without which, she will surely lose her freedom."
Even taken out of context the statement doesn't support "The Right Side." It only further solidifies the notion that truth wont be found in a book, at the pulpit, or by the consensus of a few chosen people. The truth can only be found through the curiosity to search for the facts, the fearlessness not to be lead by someone else when you know otherwise, and above all else the ability to reason.
Gary and Gordon see what they want to see, nothing else. But a rock is still a rock, a plant is still a plant, and bull shit is still bull shit. There is no other way to defend their inability to answer even the simple questions on their blogs but instead are content with deleting anything they can't respond to with religion.
That's it for now but you need to come on down to The Church Of Bill this weekend for my sermon, here is an excerpt. " I sure wish winter would come already so these damn flies would die."
The Blindman
Throw me overboard and offer me a life preserver. Then ye be a hero.