Rep. Waxman Catches Republicans in Another ACA Lie and Delivers Truth Bomb With Report

Rep. Waxman Catches Republicans in Another ACA Lie and Delivers Truth Bomb With Report

By: Justin Baragona more from Justin Baragona

Thursday, January, 2nd, 2014, 5:27 pm

On New Year’s Eve, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, published a report showing that the Republican claim that 5 million people have had their health insurance policies canceled due to the ACA is flat out false. While many have probably thought that these claims were dubious at best and most likely dishonest and exaggerated, this report is the first instance of Republicans being taken to task for continuously pushing this false narrative.
Recently, the Obama Administration has pushed back on these numbers, stating that far fewer people have actually received cancellation notices and that those who have will be able to receive similar or better coverage through the marketplaces or even find themselves eligible for Medicaid. However, even having said this, Republican lawmakers still kept touting the 5 million number without any real proof.
Finally, the Democrats are able to point to an accredited report that proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that 5 million people are not the victims of the evilness of Obamacare and will be prevented from having insurance now. The report takes the claims of the GOP at face value, using the assumption that 4.7 million people have received cancellation notices from their insurers. Among that number, the report shows that half of those people can immediately renew their plans due to fixes that the administration put forth over the past weeks and months.
Now, of those remaining that received cancellation notices (remember, again, this is a made-up number from the Republicans), 1.4 million would be able to receive subsidies on the individual marketplaces or would be eligible for Medicaid, therefore receiving free or greatly discounted health insurance. Now, that still leaves a little less than one million consumers. Of those 900,000+, all but 10,000 of them would be able to purchase another plan on the health exchanges.
In other words, this Republican talking point is complete and utter BS. With this report, the Democrats on the Energy and Commerce Committee proved that there is no widespread epidemic of policy cancellations due to the ACA. And, even if we take the Republicans’ statements as completely true, in the end, only 0.2% of those who received cancellation notices would fall through the cracks and be unable to purchase a new policy. Per the report, the only reason that is the case is because those people live in rural counties (mostly in Red states) where there are no other insurance carriers.
Is this going to stop conservative pundits and Republicans Congressmen from saying that 5 million people have been thrown off of their insurance due to Obamacare? Probably not. But, at least Democrats can point to a fully researched report and tell them they are full of crap. Much like everything else the GOP has said regarding the ACA, when you hold it up to scrutiny, it falls completely apart.

Rep. Waxman Catches Republicans in Another ACA Lie and Delivers Truth Bomb With Report was written by Justin Baragona for PoliticusUSA.

© PoliticusUSA, Thu, Jan 2nd, 2014 — All Rights Reserved

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Right wing cyber attacks on Healthcare.gov website confirmed

Play

Chairman McCaul Questions Witnesses at Hearing on Cybersecurity of Healthcare.gov websiteHomeland Security Committee

David PhillipsLas Vegas Democrat Examiner

November 14, 2013

 

Yesterday, the House Homeland Security Committee published a video on their Youtube page highlighting a portion of the committee questioning Roberta Stempfley, acting assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Cyber-security and Communications, who confirmed at least 16 attacks on the Affordable Care Act’s portal Healthcare.gov website in 2013.
Roberta Stempfley highlighted one successful attack that is designed to deny access to the website called a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. A DDoS attack is designed to make a network unavailable to intended users, generally through a concerted effort to disrupt service such as repeatedly accessing the servers, saturating them with more traffic than the website is designed to handle.
Right wingers have been distributing the link to the necessary tools to perform the attacks on the Healthcare.gov website through social networking, as pointed out by Information Week, and other websites .
The name of the attack tool is called, "Destroy Obama Care!"
"Destroy Obama Care!", that's the advertised name given to the attack tool by "right wing patriots" who are distributing the DDoS tool through downloads on social networks, which promises to overwhelm the Healthcare.gov website.

"This program continually displays alternate page of the ObamaCare website. It has no virus, Trojans, worms, or cookies. The purpose is to overload the ObamaCare website, to deny service to users and perhaps overload and crash the system," reads the program's grammar- and spelling-challenged "about" screen. "You can open as many copies of this program as you want. Each copy opens multiple links to the site."
"ObamaCare is an affront to the Constitutional rights of the people," it adds. "We have the right to civil disobedience!"

Marc Eisenbarth, research manager at the DDoS defense firm Arbor Networks says that the DDoS attack tool has been used in the past to attack perceived political wrongs.

"This application continues a trend Arbor is seeing with denial-of-service attacks being used as a means of retaliation against a policy, legal rulings or government actions," said Eisenbarth.

Some online news sites have talked about this attack tool being distributed by right wingers, and Congress held hearings this week and talked about the attacks, but there is not one mainstream news organization that seems to be interested. But they all continue to talk about the Healthcare.gov website not working as it should, and if it will be ready by the White House's self imposed deadline of December 1, 2013.
And if you watch the attached video of the questioning of Roberta Stempfley, by Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), they both are aware of the attacks, but neither mentions the website attack tool, “Destroy Obama Care!”. The Republican asking the questions obviously has the agenda of attacking the Affordable Care Act as all Republicans do, and it would not be in his best interests to mention that people on his side of the aisle are attacking it. And the DHS did not bring it up for obvious reasons of not wanting to advertise the attack tool.
A link to the attack tool “Destroy Obama Care!” was specifically omitted from this report for the same obvious reasons.

Listening to the Founding Fathers

By Michael Gerson, Published: January 2 

 

A political backlash has commenced within the Republican Party against tea party and libertarian groups that have limited interest in securing Republican victories and majorities. Elected leaders, party officials and business groups have begun pushing back against self-destructive legislative strategies and unelectable primary candidates.
But the GOP’s political reaction often concedes a great deal of ideological ground to anti-government populism — what its advocates describe as “constitutionalism.” Our national recovery, in this view, depends on returning to the severely constrained governing vision of the Founding Fathers, as embodied in the Constitution. Many Republicans now seem to be saying: Yes, this is the conservative ideal, but it is just not practical to implement at the moment.

Michael Gerson

Gerson writes about politics, religion, foreign policy and global health and development in a twice-a-week column and on the PostPartisan blog.

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This cedes too much. In a new essay in National Affairs, “A Conservative Vision of Government,” Pete Wehner and I argue that the identification of constitutionalism with an anti-government ideology is not only politically toxic; it is historically and philosophically mistaken.
It is not enough to praise America’s Founders; it is necessary to listen to them. The Federalist Founders did not view government as a necessary evil. They referred to the “imbecility” of a weak federal government (in the form of the Articles of Confederation) compared to a relatively strong central government, which is what the Constitution actually created. Though they feared the concentration of too much power in one branch of government, they believed that good government was essential to promote what they called the “public good.”
And they assumed that the content of the public good would shift over time. “Constitutions of civil government,” argued Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 34, “are not to be framed upon a calculation of existing exigencies, but upon a combination of these with the probable exigencies of ages. . . . Nothing, therefore, can be more fallacious than to infer the extent of any power, proper to be lodged in the national government, from an estimate of its immediate necessities. There ought to be a CAPACITY to provide for future contingencies as they may happen.”
In the tradition of the Federalist Founders, Abraham Lincoln believed the federal government should be capable of adjusting to changing circumstances and active in pursuit of national purposes. In his “Fragment on Government,” Lincoln described a number of matters requiring the “combined action” of government, including “public roads and highways, public schools, charities, pauperism” and “providing for the helpless young and afflicted.”
Conservatives naturally want to be seen as defenders of the Constitution. But “constitutional conservatives” need to recognize what both the Federalist Founders and Lincoln actually envisioned for the republic they respectively created and preserved. Far from being constrained by the political and economic arrangements of an 18th-century coastal, agrarian republic, the Founders fully expected the United States to spread across a continent, undergo economic and social change and emerge as a global actor. And they purposely designed a constitutional system that could accommodate such ambitions.
This is not to argue that the Founders would be happy with the current size and role of government. But, after protecting a variety of essential civil liberties, they placed such matters mainly in the realm of democratic self-government. They made it procedurally difficult for majorities to prevail. But they placed few limits on the public policies that durable majorities might adopt in the future — leaving “a capacity to provide for future contingencies.”
In our time, durable majorities have endorsed the existence of Social Security and Medicare. These roles of government were not envisioned by the Founders. But they do not violate a principle of our system nor run counter to the prescient mind-set of the Founders. People are free to argue for and against such programs. But this debate can’t be trumped or short-circuited by simplistic and legalistic appeals to the Constitution as a purely limiting document.
The broad purposes of the modern state — promoting equal opportunity, providing for the poor and elderly — are valid within our constitutional order. But these roles are often carried out in antiquated, failing systems. The conservative challenge is to accept a commitment to the public good while providing a distinctly conservative vision of effective, modest, modern government.
But a shift in mind-set is first required among conservatives: thinking of government as a precious national institution in need of care and reform. This would honor the Founders. The real Founders.

Voter Suppression Group’s Poll Finds Most Do Not Consider ‘Voter Fraud’ A Significant Problem

By Josh Israel on January 2, 2014 at 12:22 pm

"Voter Suppression Group’s Poll Finds Most Do Not Consider ‘Voter Fraud’ A Significant Problem"

A new poll by a pro-voter suppression group asked 1,000 American adults about the issue of voter fraud in the United States. And despite their arguably slanted question, just 36 percent of those polled agreed with the group’s premise that it is a “major problem.”
Judicial Watch, a right-wing group and leading player in the push for more voting restrictions, joined with the conservative Breitbart.com to sponsor the December poll. After asking questions about general corruption in Washington, D.C., the pollster (a GOP-connected firm called the polling company, inc./WomanTrend) posed the voter fraud question. “Voter fraud occurs when people who are not eligible to vote do so anyway, or when one voter casts multiple ballots in a single election,” they asked, giving respondent the options of “a major problem in the U.S.,” “a minor problem in the U.S.,” “not a problem in the U.S.,” and “don’t know/can’t judge.”
Just 36 percent indicated that voter fraud is a “major problem in the U.S.” Thirty nine percent indicated that it is a minor problem and 15 percent more said it was not a problem at all. While Judicial Watch announced these findings as “Three-quarters (75%) of adults recognize voter fraud as a problem in the United States,” a closer inspection of the crosstabs shows that 54 percent believe voter fraud to be a minor or non-existent issue. While 53 percent of the Republicans polled consider it a major problem, just 26 percent of Democrats and 33 percent of independents shared with that view.
Chris Farrell, a spokesman for Judicial Watch told the American Family News Network that the poll showed “great concern over the ability of the country to have honest elections,“ falsely claiming that “three quarters of adults say that voter fraud is a huge problem in the United States.”
The actual results suggest that fewer Americans are concerned about voter fraud than they were two years ago. A 2012 Washington Post poll found 48 percent of Americans believed voter fraud a major problem in U.S. presidential elections, while 33 percent said it was minor problem and 14 percent said it was not a problem.
Judicial Watch and other conservative groups have used the specter of voter fraud to push for strict photo ID laws for voters and other restrictions on the right to vote. But, in truth, the overwhelming evidence shows that voter fraud is extremely rare in the United States. Indeed research has shown that voters are 39 times more likely to be struck by lightning than commit voter fraud at the polls, and 3,500 times more likely to report a UFO encounter.

BREAKING: Mitt Romney is Being Sued in Federal Court for Criminal Racketeering

BREAKING: Mitt Romney is Being Sued in Federal Court for Criminal Racketeering

Posted by: Bob Cull in Crime, TEApublicans in Action January 2, 2014

Steven “Laser” Haas is the owner and sole shareholder of Collateral Logistics Inc. (CLI) the firm which was retained to oversee the liquidation of assets in the bankruptcy of eToys in 2001.

During the process of liquidating the company Haas came across irregularities, unethical practices and outright criminal acts originating from the top at Bain Capital (Mitt Romney’s asset management firm), Goldman Sachs, Kay Bee Toys and Stage Stores, all of which were involved in the machinations to sell eToys for mere pennies to Bain through its interest in Kay Bee.

Haas filed his suit under a provision of the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) statute which allows a plaintiff to become a “Private Attorney General” when it is necessary in order to address “Prosecutorial Gaps.”  According to Haas, that gap was created by Colm F. Connolly, former United States Attorney in Delaware who had been a partner in the law firm of  Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell (MNAT) in 2001, alleging he had failed to disclose that fact while also neglecting to investigate the complaints which Haas had lodged.

Along with Romney, Haas has named Goldman Sachs, Bain Capital, Michael Glazer Barry Gold and Paul Traub in the suit. Haas has claimed that he has evidence that the parties involved have committed perjury on 35 separate occasions — even alleging that there have been murders carried out in attempts to cover up their wrong doing.

His $100 million suit is intended to recover some of the losses incurred by the victims of the unethical and illegal actions of those involved in the chicanery and who reaped handsome profits from the deal.

Haas alleged in his affidavit to the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 3, 2012 that after he had uncovered numerous irregularities, he had been offered $850,000 by Bain to keep silent about what he had discovered.  When he attempted to report the bribe, he was told that since he had not accepted it, he didn’t have a case. Bain of course denies that the offer was ever made.

Haas has summarized the steps to be taken in his suit:

    Summons granted.
    Request for a Court Order to have U.S. Marshals serve the summons.
    First amended complaint Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.
    New case order.
    Haas’s preliminary RICO Case statement.

If Haas’ list of charges prove to be backed up by the evidence, this could be one of the most interesting civil trials in recent years.

No matter the outcome, there is little question that just having this case make it into court will stain the reputations of all involved permanently, including squeaky clean Mitt Romney — the man whose moral convictions run so deep that he will not even drink coffee or coke because they contain caffeine.

Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite

Professor of Theology, Chicago Theological Seminary

Marijuana: A Theology

Posted: 01/02/2014 9:05 am

Recreational marijuana became became legal in the State of Colorado on the first day of 2014 for those 21 and older. Other states, like Washington, are preparing to do the same.
Is this just a further sign of the "moral decay" of American society, or can we say the legalization of marijuana can have a place in a Christian theology that values, instead of denigrates, the body?
We might think primarily of the individual body and marijuana use, but first let us consider the social body and what will happen to our social body by legalizing marijuana.
Our social body is currently deformed, almost beyond recognition as a developed democracy, by the huge numbers of Americans in jail, many of them there for non-violent drug offenses.
The so-called "war on drugs" begun in the Nixon administration has been a Trillion Dollar Failure. All it has done is explode the prison population to the point where in the United States the number of Americans incarcerated dwarfs that of other nations. Our national failure on drug policy is also racist. "Black men were more than six times as likely as white men to be incarcerated in federal and state prisons, and local jails in 2010," according to the Pew Research Center.
The effects of this on our social body of families separated, and non-violent individuals exposed to the horrific conditions of our overcrowded prisons, cannot be exaggerated.
From a body theology perspective, one thing we can say for certain is prison is very bad for your body. The American Journal of Public Health has published a study that shows a "two-year decline in life expectancy for every year served inside prison."
In fact, we could say our marijuana public policy in almost all states and at the federal level is a public health menace, and that makes it a theological menace, if we value the social body.
But, let us not forget about the individual marijuana user. Is it good to smoke pot if it is legal? Is it moral?
There are biblical resources to which we can turn in thinking about these questions.
Biblically speaking, Jesus and his disciples clearly drank wine, and enjoyed it. In John 2:2ff, the Gospel records that Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana. Matthew (11:19) and Luke (7:34) record Jesus noting that when it comes to drinking wine or eating good food, there is no pleasing "the people of this generation." Jesus observes that people complained about John the Baptist fasting and "drinking no wine," and then turned around and complained when Jesus drinks and eats with people, saying, "Look a glutton and a drunkard!"
When it comes to imbibing, in other words, there will clearly always be differences of opinions, even as in Jesus' time. But Jesus showed his disciples that eating and drinking together was a way to celebrate community.
But, it is well to remember the instruction of Paul to the Corinthians, that their bodies are "a temple of the Holy Spirit" and thus we should "honor God with our bodies." (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
In other words, don't abuse your bodies. In terms of body theology, stimulants or depressants, when taken to excess, have very negative health effects, and they are not a way to honor God and your body.
Moderation, however, is a healthy approach to wine-drinking, and, we may come to think, to using "recreational marijuana." A little can be a part of relaxing with friends.
In addition, a glass of wine a day is good for the heart, notes the Mayo Clinic, though doctors caution people not to run out and start drinking to excess.
Marijuana has medicinal use for cancer patients, as is well known.
Does recreational use have any health value? Probably not, especially given that it is often smoked, but marijuana seems not to be the feared gateway drug to becoming an addict either.
Beyond recreational use, both wine and marijuana have had religious uses for centuries. Jews, such as Jesus, drank wine in several religious rituals and continue to do so, as do many Christians at Communion. Marijuana use has been part of Hindu ritual in the worship of Shiva, and its religious use "is most widespread today by Rastafarians as a Bible study, and meditation aid."
Thus, it can be concluded that the moral goods of using wine or marijuana will depend on the user and his or her individual religious and or ethical convictions. In all instances, however, moderation that respects the well-being of the body is advised.
Treating human bodies with decency and respect, however, transcends individual religions, and even opinions, and is a common good.
Our laws on marijuana need to reflect this common good. We should legalize recreational marijuana use at the federal level, keep it out of the hands of children and teenagers as we do with alcohol, and release those who have been incarcerated for using marijuana from all our overcrowded prisons.
That is only common sense, and common sense is one of the best guides to morality.

 

Follow Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sbthistle

They’re dying off: Texas Republicans lose three billionaire donors in 2013

December 30, 2013

By Anomaly

One billionaire Republican donor died over the weekend, and two other major donors in Texas died recently, which could be a game changer in the Red State.
Harold Simmons, who died over the weekend, helped transform Texas from a Democrat-controlled state in the 1970s to a Republican stronghold by the turn of the century.
The Star Tribune reports, “Simmons’ death Saturday came after Republicans lost home builder Bob Perry in April and businessman Leo Linbeck Jr. in June. For decades, all three helped bankroll political campaigns both in Texas and nationwide.”
Let’s have a moment of silence for these three men. OK, all done.

Matt Mackowiak, a prominent Republican political consultant said, ”It leaves a huge question mark for Republican candidates and political organizations that have relied on major contributions from those two or three individuals for the last decade.
He added, “Their generosity made a huge difference in a lot of races over a long period of time, but it was their potential to always contribute more that probably prevented a lot of races from ever taking place at all by scaring off potential competitors.”
The Tribune reports:

Simmons, who had an estimated net worth of $10 billion, gave at least $12.6 million to candidates in Texas races since 2000, according to the Texas Ethics Commission. The Center for Public Integrity named him the second-largest donor to national political action committees for 2011-2012, giving away $31 million to conservative groups.
Houston tycoon Bob Perry, no relation to the Texas governor, made his fortune building tract homes across the state and made at least $75 million in political contributions in his lifetime, not counting confidential gifts to super PACs, which can campaign independently for candidates. He gave $4.4 million to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign, which sought to discredit Democrat John Kerry’s war record when he challenged President George W. Bush in 2004. Simmons also gave the group $3 million.
Linbeck, whose family also made its fortune in construction, helped create two of the state’s most influential conservative organizations, Texans for Lawsuit Reform and Americans for Fair Taxation. TLR spent millions on candidates who supported limits on lawsuits against businesses and AFT campaigns to replace the national income tax with a national sales tax.

(my bold)
The full extent of their donations may never be known, since many were made privately.
According to James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, there is a generational change taking place in the Republican Party that coincides with the growing fight between grass-roots tea party conservatives like Cruz, and the more pragmatic business wing of the party, represented by Texas House Speaker Joe Straus.
He said, “We associate these guys with an era of Republican politics in this state that is in transition and possibly becoming something different. These were the guys who were the bedrock donors for the business wing of the Republican Party, and as politics has gotten more polarized, the party has a more ideological bent to it. These were guys in big business who were motivated by classical business interests.”
The loss of donors will hurt establishment Republicans the most. The infighting in the GOP is fracturing their base. Ted Cruz is just a flash in the pan, garnering attention without doing his job. Establishment Republicans are a dying breed. GOPers are distancing themselves from the acidic Tea Party, the monster which they helped create.
It’s like one big funeral with all the relatives fighting over the corpse.
More at the Star Tribune. 

AlterNet / By Valerie Tarico

10 Signs Religious Fundamentalism Is in Decline

If you are a nonbeliever in the mood for a party, here are 10 reasons to celebrate.

December 28, 2013  |  

 

Days may be dark right now—after all, as the memes proclaim, axial tilt is the reason for the season. But things are looking bright for those who would like to see humanity more grounded in science and reason. If you are a nonbeliever in the mood for a party, here are 10 reasons to celebrate.
1. Coming out atheist is up and coming. In May 2013, after a deadly tornado destroyed her home, young mother Rebecca Vitsmun gave anunexpected answer when CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked whether she thanked the Lord for her decision to flee. Vitsmun tells the story in a sometimes-tearfulinterview with Seth Andrews, host of the Thinking Atheist. “I had this moment in which I realized you either lie or tell the truth, and I’m not a liar.” In that moment, Vitsmun outed herself not only to a national media audience but also to her Christian parents and friends.
Vitsmun’s situation was extraordinary, but candor about nonbelief is becoming more and more commonplace. From Hollywood celebs like Cameron Diaz and Angelina Jolie to high school students, skeptics are opening up about their beliefs and values—or simply declining to lie when asked. (A quick-read book, Mom, Dad, I’m an Atheist, offers tips for those who are contemplating when, where and how best to come out.)
2. The cutting edge of freethought is less cutting and edgy. In generations past, coming out as an atheist required a devil-may-care attitude. The social and even financial costs were so high that most admitted atheists were also unflinching social activists, people who had a high degree of zeal and high tolerance for conflict. Most were also white males who were comparatively safe taking on the religious establishment. Until recently, then, atheism was virtually synonymous with anti-theism, and even today people complain that pioneers of the New Atheist movement like Dawkins, Harris, Dennett, and the late great Hitchens are unnecessarily antagonistic.
But thanks in part to their courage and flame-throwing, a new generation is emerging, one that sees atheism not as an end point, but as a beginning. Alain de Botton’s TED talk and book, Atheism 2.0, simply posits the nonexistence of God and then goes on to discuss what humanity can glean from the rubble of religious traditions. Many younger people are casting aside labels and adopting what fits from religious holidays and traditions, in the same way that they mix and match cultural, racial or sexual identities. As boundaries soften, more women, Hispanics and blacks are joining or even leading the conversations.
3. Biblical sexuality is getting binned. Finally. In the last part of December, marriage equality became law in three more states: New Mexico, Ohio and—drumroll—Utah! Even more exciting is the fact that legal changes can barely keep up with shifting attitudes about queer sexuality. Things are changing when it comes to straight sex, too, and not in keeping with biblical priorities. Perhaps the most consistent sexual theme in the Bible is that a woman’s consent is not needed or even preferred before sex. By demanding an end to rape culture, today’s young women and men are making the Bible writers look as if they were members of a tribal, Iron Age culture in which women were property like livestock and children—to be traded, sold and won in battle. Small wonder the culture warriors have ramped up their fight against contraception and abortion. Imagine if, on top of everything else, all women got access to expensive top-tier contraceptives and the power to end ill-conceived childbearing.

4. Recovering believers are reclaiming their lives. Most atheists and agnostics are former believers, which means that many carry old psychological baggage from childhood beliefs or some post-childhood cycle of conversion and deconversion. While many former believers slip out of religion unscathed, some do not, and believers in recovery now have a name: reclaimers. A small but growing number of cognitive scientists are exploring the relationship between religion and mental illnesses like depression, anxiety disorders and panic. Marlene Winell, a California consultant who works full time with recovering fundamentalists, has brought attention to a pattern she calls Religious Trauma Syndrome. Darrel Ray has created a matching service for secular clients and therapists, while Kathleen Taylor at Oxford has raised the question of whether religious fundamentalism itself may one day be treatable.

5. Communities are coming together. When two British comedians, Pippa Evans and Sanderson Jones, launched a “sort-of church” for nonbelievers last January, their Sunday Assembly got media attention around the world. By December, they were on a 40-day tour of 40 cities from Auckland to Portland helping local groups launch assemblies of their own.
Their quirky effort is part of a much broader movement among atheists who are exploring how to build communities that provide mutual assistance, outlets for wonder and delight, rituals to mark holidays, and organized volunteering. Some, like the Sunday Assembly or Jerry DeWitt’s Community Mission Chapel, deliberately draw on the structure of the traditional church service, with music and a brief lecture followed by tea and coffee. Others, like Seattle Atheists, use social media to organize a broad array of lectures, community service opportunities and recreation. Harvard’s Humanist Community opened doors on a new Humanist Hub for both students and locals on December 8. Even clergy who have lost their faith are banding together for mutual support and friendship.
6. Secular giving is growing. In times of crisis, faith communities often step in to provide emergency assistance or to help those who are most poor and desperate. Proselytizing aside, churches are able to provide real service because they have both the will and the necessary infrastructure. Increasingly, atheists and humanists are saying, we need to do the same. Since 2010, the Foundation Beyond Belief has given away almost $1.5 million raised from nonbelievers who can give as little as $5 a month, and is now turning attention to building a corps of humanist volunteers, which is also a focus of the Harvard community. In July, the Foundation Beyond Belief will host its first conference, Humanism at Work.
7. The Religious Right is licking wounds. Bets are still out on whether the Catholic Bishops and the Southern Baptists are retreating or simply rebranding, but either one is good for people who care about science, reason, compassion, or the common good. What’s clear is that the two most powerful hierarchies in the Religious Right have realized that they can’t simply seize the reins of power and remake secular institutions along theological lines. Pope Francis has given a mixture of signals on how much evidence and compassion will guide church priorities—mostly along the lines of yes if you’re poor, no if you’re female. Russell Moore, new head of the Southern Baptist Convention, has warned that Baptists shouldn’t be “mascots for any political faction.” The takeaway for all of us? Fearful, authoritarian conservatives have been smacked back in their patriarchal power plays, and they know it. Shining a light on cruelty, bigotry and ignorance works.
8. Texas is evolving! The State of Texas is such a large textbook market that Texas standards can influence content across the nation. This means that a handful of well-placed wingnuts in Texas can reshape the next generation’s understanding of science or history. Thanks to the hard work of the Texas Freedom Network and young activists, public school texts in Texas will be teaching biological science rather than creationism. This fall, reviewers appointed by the Texas Board of Education pushed to include creationism in the texts, but publishers pushed back. Acceptance of evolution is growingacross the country. As Darwin said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.” Ultimately, the review panel itself rejected creationist arguments. Now that’s evolution!
9. Millennials are taking up the torch. When it comes to separation of church and state, young people are teaming up with established players like the Freedom From Religion Foundation for some real wins. Many of the most hopeful, inspiring freethought stories of 2013 had young protagonists, and we can expect more of the same moving forward. Zack Kopplin was still in high school when he took on the state of Louisiana over creationism in schools. Now he is a full-time science advocate and columnist for the Guardian. “Evil little thing” Jessica Ahlquist, whose lawsuit forced removal of a prayer banner at her high school in 2012, has continued a path of secular activism. Inspiring stories of other young church-state activists can be found here.
10. Rebuilding the wall of separation isn’t the only place Millennials are leading the way. Young adults who grew up isolated in abusive homeschooling situations have created a network, Homeschoolers Anonymous, so that they can lend each other support and fight for change. When a Catholic school in Bellevue, Washington fired a gay teacher, hundreds of students walked out chanting, “Change the church.” Their protest was picked up by students at other schools and Catholic alumni. A new documentary movie with a millennial production crew, The Unbelievers, has been described as a rock concert love-fest between biologist Richard Dawkins and physicist Larry Krause and their young fan base of science lovers.
For those who want to find secular inspiration rather than to join a fight for rights and reason, young photographer Chris Johnson has created a coffee table book that challenges readers to grab hold of this one precious life: A Better Life—100 Atheists Speak Out About Joy and Meaning in a World Without God. The title says it all.

Valerie Tarico is a psychologist and writer in Seattle, Washington and the founder of Wisdom Commons. She is the author of "Trusting Doubt: A Former Evangelical Looks at Old Beliefs in a New Light" and "Deas and Other Imaginings." Her articles can be found at Awaypoint.Wordpress.com.

Scott Walker Makes Wisconsin NUMBER ONE...In Jobless Claims

Election 2014

Al Melvin, Tucson State Senator Running for Governor, Misquotes Lincoln -- Doesn't Care

By Ray Stern Tue., Dec. 31 2013 at 11:06 AM

Al Melvin, a state senator running for governor, apparently has never heard of snopes.com. Nor is he showing interest in debunking anything after he was flambeed by his Twitter followers over the past week and embarrassed in news articles for misquoting Abraham Lincoln.

See also:
- Governor Jan Brewer Vetoes Bill That Aimed to Seize All Federal Lands in the State
The Republican from Tucson hasn't bothered to take down quotes from his Twitter account in which he erroneously attributes to the 16th president as a backhanded way to try to criticize President Obama.
"#azright Abe Lincoln: 'You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong,'" read Melvin's first tweet misquoting Lincoln on December 27. He followed with:
"#azright0 Abe: 'You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.'"
and
"#azright Abe Lincoln:'You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.'"
For emphasis after the third tweet, he added, "POTUS Obama needs to learn from these words."
From the site, it appears that Robbie Sherwood, a political consultant, former Arizona Republic reporter and former chief-of-staff for Democratic Congressman Harry Mitchell, nailed Melvin's misquotes the same day.
"@SenatorMelvin This is an urban legend. Lincoln never said this, it has been falsely attributed to him. http://www.snopes.com/quotes/lincoln/prosperity.asp ..." Sherwood chided.
True enough, a months-old post on Snopes, a great site for checking Internet-driven BS that everyone should know about, reveals that the quote actually came from a Presbyterian minister 50 years after Lincoln's death. It's part of a list of "cannots" that was put on a pamphlet in the early 20th century and which has been confused with Lincoln nearly ever since for reasons that aren't clear, the site says.
"Klute," another of Melvin's tweet-suckers, tells the senator, "If you can't be bothered to learn truth from falsehood, why should you be even considered for Governor?"
Melvin doesn't acknowledge the responses, and leaves the quotes alone.

Al Melvin

A story by Arizona reporter Howie Fischer about the misquotes was published in the Sierra Vista Herald on Monday afternoon, and was followed by other news outlets, including today by the national rawstory.com. "It sounded good to me," Melvin told Fischer. "If anything, it's an innocent mistake on my part."
Melvin's a former Navy captain who now works as a "trade and transportation consultant." At least, that's what it says on his Arizona Legislature member bio. Maybe that should be run by Snopes, too...

Wendy Davis, Leticia Van De Putte Aim To Make History In 2014

By PAUL J. WEBER 01/01/14 11:54 AM ET EST

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Forget whether Hillary Clinton could win the White House in 2016. Women still have yet to run many statehouses, but in 2014 two Texas Democrats are going for a new kind of history: Winning as an all-female ticket.
Woven into one of the the nation's most intriguing gubernatorial races this year is whether Democrat Wendy Davis, whose 11-hour filibuster over abortion restrictions catapulted the state senator to national fame this summer, can not only overcome long odds in a fiercely Republican state but pull off a political first.
If Davis and fellow state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, who is running for lieutenant governor, prevail in their March primaries as expected, they'll form what political experts say is only the fifth time in at least the past 20 years that a party has nominated two women for a state's top offices.
None of these pairings has ever won — nor have a woman governor and lieutenant governor ever served concurrently. The last two-woman ticket to try was steamrolled in November by New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie on his easy path to re-election.
That pair came away some advice for their Texas cohorts.
"Expect to be marginalized. Just be ready for it," said New Jersey Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono, who lost to Christie by 22 points.
Not all nominees run as "tickets" in the traditional sense. Texas is among the states that elect a governor and lieutenant governor separately, meaning that Davis and Van de Putte don't come as a package even though they'll overlap in message.
That message hasn't focused on gender. Davis talks about education and weeding out cronyism while trying to forge a broader identity among voters who might only know her from her stand in pink running shoes on the Texas Senate floor for reproductive rights.
But Davis and Van de Putte, who's Hispanic, can't escape their obvious contrast to Republicans, whose entire statewide ticket in Texas this year is shaping up to be almost exclusively white and male.

"Diversity in government, I think, is incredibly important," Davis said. "Bringing a variety of perspectives to the leadership table creates better government."
Yet Republican can argue they're doing the better job of putting women in governor's mansions right now. The GOP has four nationwide to the one held by Democrats. But the party has recently acknowledged it could do better with women voters, including U.S. House Speaker John Boehner saying in December that some members of his caucus could stand to be more "sensitive" at times.
Unlike New Jersey, Davis and Van de Putte aren't challenging a popular incumbent-turned-potential presidential candidate. Texas Gov. Rick Perry is stepping aside after 14 years and giving Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott, the presumptive Republican nominee, the task of preserving two decades of statewide GOP rule.
That relegates Davis and Van de Putte to the status of most female tickets before them: underdogs, despite Texas having a stronger history than many states of electing powerful women leaders.
Former South Carolina GOP chairwoman Karen Floyd, who helmed the state party when Nikki Haley became South Carolina's first female governor in 2011, hosted a summit in August to brainstorm how Republicans can elect more women.
The problem, she said, isn't message but getting more women to run.
"The Democratic Party has a better track record. They've been doing it longer," Floyd said. "I think you'll see more Republican woman offer up. It'll be a cascading effect."
The closest two women have come to sweeping a state's top two offices was 2004 in Missouri, when now-U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, and the party's female nominee for lieutenant governor narrowly lost.
Female Democratic candidates tend to amplify the gender gap in elections, said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. She said the other recent all-female tickets were a pair of Illinois Democrats in 1994 and a pair of Kentucky Republicans in 1999.
Buono doesn't believe being a woman was the deciding factor in the New Jersey gubernatorial race, but said they faced misogynistic and belittling remarks in a state where none of its 12 congressional members are women. One GOP county chairman compared Buono choosing Milly Silva, a labor leader who previously never ran for statewide office, as her running mate to picking his secretary.
Van de Putte recalled feeling marginalized in the Texas Senate in June when, as Republicans began stopping Davis' filibuster, she took the microphone and asked: "At what point must a female senator raise her hand or her voice to be recognized over the male colleagues in the room?"
Van de Putte, who will face one of the four men vying for the Republican nomination, acknowledged it's unusual to try winning with two women.
"But, you know, maybe it shouldn't be," Van de Putte said. "We just happen to be two gals. That's the way it ended up."
___
Follow Paul J. Weber: www.twitter.com/pauljweber

Another Cabal Think Tank Exposed

Another Cabal Think Tank Exposed

Thursday, 02 January 2014

Report criticizes conservative Nebraska think tank

A conservative Nebraska think tank — the Platte Institute for Economic Research — has been labeled by two watchdog groups as a so-called “stink tank” that is part of a nationwide network promoting an extreme right-wing agenda.
According to a report by the Center for Media and Democracy and Progress Now, the Platte Institute is aligned with the State Policy Network, or SPN, “an $83 million web of right-wing think tanks ” in every state across the country.
“These organizations present themselves as nonpartisan, objective and scholarly,” the report said. “But instead of being actual, honest think tanks, all of these organizations are funded by and/or work for groups like the corporate-backed American Legislative Exchange Council, Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers and other billionaire conservative and corporate funders. (editor’s note: the ALEC/Koch/AFP Cabal.)
“SPN and its affiliates push an extreme right-wing agenda that aims to privatize education, block healthcare reform, restrict workers’ rights, roll back environmental protections and create a tax system that benefits most those at the very top level of income,” the report said.
SPN officials did not respond to a request for comment, but Jim Vokal, executive director of the Platte Institute, dismissed the report.
“Our group and SPN are being attacked based on our philosophy and our success in advancing free-market solutions,” he said. “There are people out there that do not support free-market solutions. They want bigger government. And that’s what I think this is — an attempt to attack those who believe in what we believe in.”
The Platte Institute was established in 2007 by Omaha businessman Pete Ricketts, the former chief operating officer for Ameritrade who unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 2006 and is seeking next year’s GOP gubernatorial nomination. He resigned from the institute’s board of directors in August, Vokal said.
The Platte Institute identifies itself as “a research and educational organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for all citizens of Nebraska by advancing sensible, well-researched solutions to state and local economic policy issues.”
Its website says: “The Platte Institute’s scholars study public policy problems and propose solutions that increase economic opportunity for all Nebraskans. We then promote these solutions by publishing studies, briefing papers and other educational materials which help policymakers, the media and the general public gain a better understanding of the issues. (ed. note: contributing to the right wing echo chamber.)
“The Platte Institute is founded on the belief that the freedom and quality of life that Nebraskans deserve is best achieved by promoting free-enterprise, limited government and personal responsibility. Our scholars move beyond the mindset that every problem has a government solution,” the website says. “Instead, we propose policy alternatives that respect the rights of the individual and encourage hard work and perseverance.”
The Platte Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization privately funded through contributions made by individuals, businesses and foundations.
The Center for Media and Democracy and Progress Now report notes that the SPN and most of its affiliates do not post their major donors on their websites.
“The identities of the donors we have discovered reveal that SPN is largely funded by global corporations — such as Reynolds American, Altria, the e-cigarette company NJOY, Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon, Facebook, the for-profit online education company K12 Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, Kraft Foods, Express Scripts, Comcast, Time Warner, and the Koch- and tea party-connected DCI Group lobbying and PR firm — that stand to benefit from SPN’s destructive agenda,” the report said, “as well as out-of-state special interests like the billionaire Koch brothers, the Waltons, the Bradley Foundation, the Roe Foundation and the Coors family — who are underwriting an extreme legislative agenda that undermines the traditional rights of modern Americans.”
The report said that while SPN’s affiliates are registered as educational nonprofits, “several appear to orchestrate extensive lobbying and political operations to peddle their legislative agenda to state legislators, despite the IRS’s regulations on nonprofit political and lobbying activities.
“SPN and many of its affiliates are some of the most active members and largest sponsors of the controversial ALEC, where special interest groups and state politicians vote behind closed doors on ‘model’ legislation to change Americans’ rights, through ALEC’s task forces,” the report said. “SPN has close ties to, and works with, other national right-wing organizations like the Franklin Center and David Koch’s Americans for Prosperity.”

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All illustrations were added by this editor.
This article is written by Kevin O’Hanlon and is published by the (Lincoln, Nebraska) JournalStar.com at http://journalstar.com/news/state-and-regional/report-criticizes-conservative-nebraska-think-tank/article_7d1c8cd6-5561-5993-87cc-fbdfc68f494f.html

Reid: Senate to vote on extending jobless benefits

By By Sandra Chereb December 31, 2013

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CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — The Senate will vote next Monday on temporarily extending federal benefits for the long-term unemployed, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said.

Reid, D-Nev., told The Associated Press he's hopeful a bill co-sponsored by Nevada's Republican Sen. Dean Heller will be approved by the upper chamber, but he offered no prediction on whether it will pass muster in the House of Representatives.
"I don't predict anything in the House," Reid said Monday, describing the Republican-controlled House as a "black hole of legislation."

Story: 1.3 Million People Lost Unemployment Benefits. It Could Get Ugly

"We'll see what happens," he said.
But he praised Heller for the bipartisan bill he introduced with U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island. The measure would continue the federal jobless program for three months while a compromise is sought.
"I hope we can get that done," said Reid, who has often been at odds with the conservative Heller.

Video: Reid on Outlook for Votes on Budget and Nominations

"I'm happy to see Dean has joined us," Reid added. "He's broken away from the tea party folks who don't want to do anything."
When he introduced the bill, Heller said, "Providing a safety net for those in need is one of the most important functions of the federal government. As Nevada's unemployment rate continues to top the charts nationwide, many families and individuals back home do not know how they are going to meet their basic needs."
A two-year budget deal reached earlier this month failed to include an extension of jobless benefits for people who have been unemployed longer than six months. About 17,000 Nevadans lost benefits when the program expired Saturday. Nationally, 1.3 million were cut off from receiving unemployment.

Video: Reid on Outlook for Senate Action on Budget Plan

Nevada officials estimate 800 Nevadans will lose benefits each week as they exhaust their 26 weeks of state-paid unemployment insurance unless Congress extends the federal program that was enacted in 2008 at the height of the recession when unemployment soared. It allowed the long-term unemployed in hard hit states like Nevada to receive benefits for up to 99 weeks. The duration was cut to 73 weeks last year.
Looking ahead to 2014, Reid said one of his priorities will be addressing the wealth gap between the rich, poor and middle class.
"The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, the middle class is getting squeezed and it's just not fair," said Reid, adding that raising the minimum wage would be another top priority, along with extending jobless benefits.

Video: Tapering Will Begin in Q4 After Elections: Reid

He said he's scheduled to appear on a Sunday news show to outline his legislative goals in the midterm election year.

Video: Reid on U.S. Budget Deal: Political Capital (12/13)

President Obama NAILS IT in one sentence

President Obama NAILS IT in one sentence

by MinistryOfTruth

President Obama: The American people elected their representatives to make their lives easier, not harder

This is what it comes down to. The GOP hopes that if they can make enough Americans suffer it will hurt President Obama.
The GOP has an agenda that hurts 99% of Americans and only benefits the wealthiest 1%. They ran on that agenda in 2012 with Romney/Ryan and lost badly. The American people have rejected the GOP's "1%ers Only" agenda and will continue to do so no matter what screeching Teabaggers believe.
The majority of Americans who aren't brainwashed Fox viewers overwhelmingly want Representatives in Congress that will make our lives better, not harder.
The choice is clear, if you want a sane and functioning Government that tries to make life better for the average American you should vote for Democrats.
More below the fold

If you want to coddle billionaires and corporate interests while prattling on about Fox News talking points with a bunch of dopey tea bags hanging from your hate then please proceed, Tea Party . . .
Millions of Americans voted to re-elect President Barack Obama in 2012. Obama won. This Republican Government Shutdown isn't just about killing Obamacare, it is about overturning the results of the 2012 Presidential Election. Millions of Americans voted for a government that makes our lives better, not harder.
This is what a dying Republican party looks like. I'm glad President Obama has brought out the BIG STICK.

President Obama: The American people elected their representatives to make their lives easier, not harder

The Tea Party and their GOP cohorts have decided that if they can make life harder for Americans they can blame Obama for it. That plan IS backfiring on the GOP, as it should. I stand with our President 110% on this. Republicans are trying to make life harder on the average American. The only thing the American public should reward the GOP with is our scorn.
Hat tip to kossack kravitz for the video of the President's speech
The embed isn't working, but here is the link

10:19 AM PT: Please listen to the President's speech in its' entirety if you get the chance. This is Obama at his best, hammering the GOP for threatening to wreck the economy. I will try to get a full transcript up as soon as I can.

‘Antiques Roadshow’ discovers $660 painting is $661,000 van Dyck masterpiece

‘Antiques Roadshow’ discovers $660 painting is $661,000 van Dyck masterpiece (via Raw Story )

The BBC One program Antiques Roadshow has discovered a “lost masterpiece” by 17th Century master Anthony van Dyck. A priest in Nottingham, Father Jaime, had purchased the painting for $660, and brought it to a filming of Antiques Roadshow to be…

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