More good news about Obamacare: No pre-existing conditions clause

More:

• Doctors for America
• Patients Over Politics Bus Tour
• Dr. Cynthia Brooks in the Grand Forks (North Dakota) Herald:  “For a dirty word, ‘Obamacare’ does a lot of good”
• Dr. Nilesh Kalya­naraman in the Galesburg (Illinois) Planet:  “Equal Pay for Equal Work“  (on raising Medicaid rates under Obamacare to improve care)
• Rep. Allen West Breaks With Republican Hardliners, Defends Key Provisions Of Obamacare (thinkprogress.org) (Yes, that Allen West)
• Are Republicans Bending On ‘Obamacare’? (tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com)
• Senate Republicans Signal Big Shift On ‘Obamacare’ (tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com)
• Conservative groups call the shots on Obamacare repeal (dailykos.com)
• Senate Republicans still confused on what to do about Obamacare (dailykos.com)
• Obama campaign reclaims ‘Obamacare’ (politico.com)
• Forget Interstate Commerce. It’s the “Necessary and Proper” Clause That’s the Key to Obamacare’s Future (motherjones.com)
• Side Effects: Another Obamacare Initiative Bites the Dust (heritage.org)

Texas: No voter identification required for May 29 primary

Early voting for the twice-delayed* Texas primary elections opens this week.  The election is set for May 29.

Happy to see the Texas Democratic Party sending out notices that voters won’t be turned away from the polls.  It’s a clear effort to deflate the voting discouragement campaign of State Attorney General Greg Abbott, Gov. Rick Perry, and the Republicans of the Texas Lege.

Letter from the Texas Democrats:

Dear Ed,

On Monday, the polls will open for early voting for the May 29th Democratic Primary Election. We’ll be selecting the Democratic nominees who will lead the charge towards taking back our state in 2012.

Here’s how you can make your voice heard:

Confirm that you’re registered to vote.  You can verify your registration on the Secretary of State’s website.

Find your early voting location by contacting your county elections office.  Early voting for the Primary Election runs from Monday, May 14th through Friday, May 25th.

Request to have a ballot mailed to you.  Your application for a mail ballot must be received no later than Tuesday, May 22nd.

Use the same documents that you’ve used in the past to vote. No photo ID is required! The photo voter id legislation is not in effect for this election. All you need is:

• Your voter registration card;
• A driver’s license or personal identification card issued to you by Texas or another state (even if the license or card has expired);
• A form of identification that contains your photograph and establishes your identity;
• A birth certificate or other document confirming birth that is admissible in a court of law and establishes your identity;
• Your United States citizenship papers;
• Your United States passport;
• Official mail addressed to you by a governmental entity; or
• A copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows your name and address.

Want to know who’s on the ballot? A list of the Democratic candidates is available on our website.

Want to know more about voting in Texas? Visit VoteTexas.gov.

Want to help elect Democrats in your county? Have questions about local races? Contact your Democratic County Chair.

Sincerely,

Boyd L. Richie
Chairman
Texas Democratic Party

I’d be interested to see that the Republican Party in Texas is doing something similar. They keep booting me off their lists. Anybody got a similar letter from them, especially one showing how the Texas Voter Identification law does not apply to this primary election?

_____________

*  The elections were delayed by federal court orders.  Texas is a place that historically discriminated against minority voters, and so under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, reapportionments by the legislature must be approved by the Justice Department or a federal court as complying with the nondiscrimination laws.  AG Abbott tried to do an end run around Justice, suing for approval as a first step.  As part of its War on Democracy, the Texas Lege wrote a spectacularly Gerrymandered reapportionment plan, depriving Texas Hispanics from new representation despite the dramatic increase in their populations.  Consequently the federal courts balked at quick approval.  Instead, they asked for more information.  In the delay, the Washington courts ordered the federal court in San Antonio to draw up a more fair plan, giving at least three new seats to districts where Hispanics hold broad sway.

Litigation against the Texas Jim Crow Voter Identification law is separate.

Related articles

• 51 years they’ve pursued this woman who marched with Dr. King . . . (timpanogos.wordpress.com)
• ACLU, NAACP To Sue PA On Behalf Of Woman, 95, Over Voter ID Laws (crooksandliars.com)
• Candidates count on early vote ahead of delayed primary (mysanantonio.com)
• Obama campaign confronts new voter identification laws (mercurynews.com)
• ‘Show Me State’ Courts See Through GOP Photo ID Deceptions, But MO Republicans Undeterred (bradblog.com)
• ALEC’s Voter ID Laws Work to Overturn Hundreds of Years of Progressive Moves to Broaden Democracy (alternet.org)
• Obama Administration Blocks Texas Voter Id Law (maboulette.wordpress.com)
• Early Voting Starts Monday For Texas Primary (dfw.cbslocal.com)
• Federal lawyers want to postpone voter ID case (amarillo.com)
• Abbott responds to federal court’s foot-dragging claims (statesman.com)
• Early voting starts Monday (amarillo.com)
• Voter ID Law Causes Low Voter Turnout In Primary Election (pittsburgh.cbslocal.com)
• Hopefuls question Landtroop’s credentials (amarillo.com)

Infographics creation by students, as a tool of learning

Infographic-a-Day describes this TEDx video (I added the links):

Perhaps one of the bigest and most listened to advocates of using infographics and data vis in the classroom is Diana Laufinberg, from The Science Leadership Academy. Diana, a History teacher, is a long time user of geographic information systems (GIS). She has recently, however, started helping her students to create their own infographics from complex issues that are part of her course of study and/or part of current events.

Here is a video of Diana’s talk at a recent TEDx…

Tip of the old scrub brush to David Warlick at 2¢ Worth.

Related articles

• Especially see this article at the New York Times‘ Learning Network, about the work of Diana Laufinberg, aimed at teachers with a nod to how to do it
• Easily Create Infographics with Easel.ly (freetech4teachers.com)
• An Interesting Infographic on Prohibition (freetech4teachers.com)
• Infographics- Visual Displays of Information (showmemotech.wordpress.com)
• Best Practices for Infographics (text100.com)
• Infographics (ccdc12.wordpress.com)
• India at a Glance : My First Infographics (shantitda.wordpress.com)
• The Pinterest (P)infographic (edelman.com.au)

I get e-mail from Barack Obama

He’s talking about marriage:

Ed –

Today, I was asked a direct question and gave a direct answer:

I believe that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.

I hope you’ll take a moment to watch the conversation, consider it, and weigh in yourself on behalf of marriage equality:

http://my.barackobama.com/Marriage

I’ve always believed that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally. I was reluctant to use the term marriage because of the very powerful traditions it evokes. And I thought civil union laws that conferred legal rights upon gay and lesbian couples were a solution.

But over the course of several years I’ve talked to friends and family about this. I’ve thought about members of my staff in long-term, committed, same-sex relationships who are raising kids together. Through our efforts to end the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, I’ve gotten to know some of the gay and lesbian troops who are serving our country with honor and distinction.

What I’ve come to realize is that for loving, same-sex couples, the denial of marriage equality means that, in their eyes and the eyes of their children, they are still considered less than full citizens.

Even at my own dinner table, when I look at Sasha and Malia, who have friends whose parents are same-sex couples, I know it wouldn’t dawn on them that their friends’ parents should be treated differently.

So I decided it was time to affirm my personal belief that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry.

I respect the beliefs of others, and the right of religious institutions to act in accordance with their own doctrines. But I believe that in the eyes of the law, all Americans should be treated equally. And where states enact same-sex marriage, no federal act should invalidate them.

If you agree, you can stand up with me here.

Thank you,

Barack

A serendipitous campaign issue.  Something that actually was not planned!

Here’s an ABC-made YouTube clip of the critical part of the interview President Obama gave them yesterday:

More, and Related Articles

• Obama: ‘I think same-sex couples should be able to get married’ (firstread.msnbc.msn.com)
• Obama: “Same-Sex Couples Should Be Able To Get Married” (buzzfeed.com)
• Obama: Same-sex couples should be able to get married (macleans.ca)

Quote Jeremiad of the moment: Sen. Bill Bradley, do the right thing, the moral thing

Former Sen. Bill Bradley — Rhodes Scholar, All-American college basketball player, NBA Champion with the New York Knicks, and all-around good guy — has a book out, We Can All Do Better.  I’m reading it now, and I hope thousands of others will read it before we vote in November.

Did you know Bradley is an Eagle Scout?  If you didn’t know that, you should be able to tell from this excerpt from his book that he shares the values of Eagle Scouts, and works to practice them.

This is excerpted with express permission.

We Can All Do Better

Adapted excerpt from WE CAN ALL DO BETTER, by Bill Bradley. Published in May 2012 by Vanguard Press. 

Just as no one guaranteed that the Greek, Roman, or Ottoman Empires would last forever, no one has guaranteed America its continued dominance in the world. If overreaching abroad and decay at home cause us to falter, the world will be a place with considerably less hope.

America’s idealism, optimism, and spirit of self-reliance — all these have created the unique American character, a character that has inspired people around the globe. But the America of today is in a state of confusion. We don’t see our problems clearly, or if we do, we often — out of inertia, fear, or greed — fail to deal with them. The federal government has amassed an enormous debt in just the last ten years. Many of our state and local governments, have pursued the “free lunch,” spending lavishly on pensions and health care and then handing on the bill to future state administrations. The corporate sector is consumed with the short term, trapped in a financial prison of stock buybacks and quarterly earnings reports, unable to invest or hire in its own long-term interest. Ten years ago, sixty-one U.S. companies had triple-A bond ratings; today there are four.

As long as you act a hair’s width within your lawyer’s definition of the law, you get a pass that exempts you from doing what is not just legal, but also right. I had a friend who worked at the highest levels in three major investment banks over twenty-five years. He told me that once when he refused to work on a deal because he didn’t think it was right, the head of the firm came to him and said, “I know what we’re doing is unethical, even immoral, but I can assure you it’s not illegal.”

Exacerbating these failings is a mass media that champions the superficial, sensational, and extreme view. Only a few major newspapers, all of them under relentless financial pressure and apparently unable to reinvent themselves in order to attain a level of profitability, still attempt to ferret out the truth, but reporting, the craft of going out to discover what isn’t known, too often gives way to opinion pieces.

The losers here are the people, who would like to know: What happened in the city council meeting? Or in the congressional committee room? How was the money for schools spent? How did that special-interest tax break make it into the tax code? Who agreed to the pensions that bankrupted our town? What did corporation X do for the ten thousand workers it just fired? How will the latest technological innovation affect jobs? These are the kinds of questions that rarely get answered, at least on television. If people in power are not held responsible for what they do, it will be easier for them to abuse that power. Without facts to challenge a government official or a CEO, the peoples’ questions and accusations are parried by elementary public relations tactics.

Copyright © 2012 by Bill Bradley

This is a busy, busy month for me.  I hope to finish Bradley’s book and have more to say, soon.  It’s in bookstores now, if you want to get a copy and beat me to it.

Related articles

• On Monday’s Radio Show… (alan.com)

Jim Morin at the Miami Herald demonstrates why gasoline prices rise

Jim Morin of the Miami Herald, via the National Journal.  Here’s  a near-real-time demonstration of why gasoline prices rise so dramatically.

Jim Morin at the Miami Herald demonstrates why …, posted with vodpod

51 years they’ve pursued this woman who marched with Dr. King . . .

. . . and now they’ve figured out how to keep her from voting:  A “voter I.D. law” in Pennsylvania.

From the website of ACLU of Pennsylvania:

On May 1, 2012, the ACLU of Pennsylvania, the Advancement Project, the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia (PILCOP), and the Washington, DC law firm of Arnold & Porter LLP filed a lawsuit in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania to overturn the voter ID law passed by the General Assembly in March 2012.

The lawsuit alleges that the state’s voter photo ID law violates the Pennsylvania Constitution by depriving citizens of their most fundamental constitutional right – the right to vote. The plaintiffs are asking the Commonwealth Court to issue an injunction blocking enforcement of the law before November’s election. If the law is not overturned, most of the plaintiffs will be unable to cast ballots in the fall, despite the fact that many of them have voted regularly for decades.

Voter identification laws passed through several legislatures in the past half decade frequently cause more voters to lose their voting privileges than frauds prevented.  While there is no evidence of significant voter fraud caused by someone stealing another’s identity to vote — the only voter fraud voter identification laws is aimed at — there are thousands, or tens of thousands of people in every state where these laws are passed who cannot get suitable identification papers to vote.

Although these citizens often are long-time voters, good citizen parents who have raised outstanding children and performed their civic duties thr0ughout their lives, they often lack the technically picky identity documents to get a voter identification card.  Their stories are not unique, but surprisingly common, shared by millions of Americans:

• Many were born outside hospitals, and lack birth certificates.  Though no one doubts their life history, the voter laws do not allow usual forms of identification to get a voter card.  These people can get credit cards, can buy and sell property, and can cash checks in their towns.  But the identification used to secure financial transactions do not satisfy the voter identification laws.
• A significant portion of these people are simply elderly, and gave up driving.  Consequently they lack a current drivers license.  Clearly they cannot get a new drivers license, but they also cannot get a voter identification card without great effort, sometimes without great cost, and almost always, in time to vote in this year’s elections.
• In Texas, the now-stayed-by-a-federal-court voter ID law allows a handgun license to be used as identification, but not a photo identification from a state college or university.  Among other arguments the courts found convincing in staying the law, in 81 of Texas’s 254 counties, there is no office of any state agency that can issue an accepted voter identification card.  In other words, in a third of Texas counties, it’s impossible to get a valid voter identification card if you don’t already have one.
• (Updated; see comments) Young people — students, soldiers at basic training, high school graduates still living at home to save money while working to make money — frequently cannot produce the documentation the voter identification laws ask for, like a utility bill in their name.  See the story at Radula, where Dorid discusses one state’s rejecting another state’s birth certificates (as if we hadn’t known that would happen . . .) and other problems; young voters don’t vote as they should, and now we know many who want to vote, will probably be denied.

Meanwhile, from time to time a real case of voter fraud shows up.  I have yet to find one that could have been prevented by voter identification laws.

How many of the voter identification laws were drafted in the smoke-filled, alcohol-laced backrooms of ALEC conferences?

Resources: 

• .pdf of Applewhite vs. Pennsylvania plaintiff’s complaint
• Motion for preliminary injunction in Applewhite vs. Pennsylvania
• Videos of name plaintiffs in the case

More (with help from Zemanta):

• Talking Points Memo covered this one, too
• FreakOutNation.com
• Why We Fight: Because GOP Wants To Keep Viviette Applewhite from Voting (crooksandliars.com)
• This week in the War on Voting: Don’t mess with 93-year-old ladies in Pennsylvania (dailykos.com)
• 93-year-old woman will be lead plaintiff in case against voter ID (thegrio.com)
• ACLU, NAACP file suit against voter-ID law (wnd.com)
• New Legal Challenge to PA GOP’s Polling Place Photo ID Restriction Law Likely to Succeed (bradblog.com)
• “PA Voter ID Law Would Keep 93-Year-Old Who Marched With Martin Luther King From Voting” (pamhi.wordpress.com)
• ACLU sues Pennsylvania over voter ID law (pennlive.com)

Bagley, and the thinking Republican’s fear that President Obama will say “God bless America”

Former Sen. Alan Simpson told Charlie Rose that he’s grateful President Obama didn’t offer the Simpson-Bowles budget balancing plan, since Republicans would then have to oppose every part of it, reflexively, as part of their “hate Obama completely” policy.

Pat Bagley uncoded the formula, too.

Pat Bagley – cartoon appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune, May 3, 2012

The danger?  The danger is Obama will propose something to save America, and the Republicans will oppose it in a knee-jerk fashion.  Some say it’s happened already.

And all of a sudden, you find yourself naked, cold and wet, and stuck in a swamp.  Can you console yourself that the flies are tasty?

Proud to be a liberal, JFK

Somebody made a poster out of it:

Quote from Sen. John F. Kennedy, September 14, 1960

You can read the entire original speech by Sen. John F. Kennedy here, at Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub.  There’s more defense of his being considered a liberal, and the good that liberals do.  It’s almost quaint the way he defends Adlai Stevenson.

Why do you wave the flag, help old ladies cross busy streets, keep children safe, and sing the “Star Spangled Banner?”

Tip of the old scrub brush to MoveOn.org, PBS and American Experience, and everyone who sent me a link to this today.

Related articles

• JFK’s Peace Speech (txwclp.org)

“And yet, here you stand.” Give Pat Bagley a hug, and a Pulitzer

Pat Bagley cartoon from the Salt Lake Tribune, May 2, 2012:

Pat Bagley cartoon, Salt Lake Tribune, May 2, 2012

Wow.

Plot to destroy the U.S. economy?

Clearly Rep. Allen West got duped.

I hope this is a hoax — but I can’t even find a denial, yet.  Got the rebuttal that works?

Copied in its entirety from Daily Kos, a post by CC:

    It’s no secret now that GOP in Congress literally plotted to undermine U.S. economy during President Obama’s Inauguration.

     In Robert Draper’s book, “Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives” Draper wrote that during a four hour, “invitation only” meeting with GOP Minister of Propaganda, Frank Luntz, Senior GOP Congressmen plotted to undermine and destroy America’s Economy.

The Guest List:
Frank Luntz – GOP Minister of Propaganda
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA)
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA),
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX),
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX),
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI)
Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA),
Sen. Jim DeMint (SC-R),
Sen. Jon Kyl (AZ-R),
Sen. Tom Coburn (OK-R),
Sen. John Ensign (NV-R) and
Sen. Bob Corker (TN-R).

Non-lawmakers present Newt Gingrich

During the four hour meeting, the senior GOP members plotted to bring Congress to a standstill regardless how much it would hurt the American Economy by pledging to obstruct and block President Obama on all legislation.

   These members of Congress were not simply airing their complaints regarding the other party’s political platform for four long hours.  No, these men were literally plotting to undermine and destroy the U.S. Economy.

        On that date, January 20, 2009, America had been losing over 750,000 jobs per month because of policies these Congressional Leaders had enacted and their goal, their goal that night, was to plot ways to undermine any and all legislation that would pull American families up and out of the economic calamity they had helped create.

       Everyone of these members of Congress supported the very Bush/Cheney policies that caused America to teeter on the brink of the 2nd Great Depression and caused the 2007 US Economic Meltdown.

      These guys can’t say they were sitting at dinner for four hours discussing any objection to Stimulus Legislation and raising the Debt Ceiling because of political ideology as each one of them voted yes on Bush/Cheney Stimulus Bills and yes every time Bush/Cheney wanted to raise the Debt Ceiling.

Here’s how they all voted:
– “Yes” to Bush/Cheney January 2008 Stimulus
– “Yes” to Bush/Cheney bailing out Bear Stern
– “Yes” to Bush/Cheney bailing out AIG
– “Yes” to Bush/Cheney TARP (sept 2008)
– “Yes” to Bush/Cheney TARP (oct 2008)

    And these same members of Congress:
– Supported Bush/Cheney keeping cost of two wars out of the Budget
– Supported Bush/Cheney spending $4Trillion on Top 1% Tax Cuts while trying to pay down Debt on Two Wars

Ahhh … but at their dinner they plotted to suddenly stop supporting any stimulus legislation:

“Show united and unyielding opposition to the president’s economic policies.“

Rep Kevin McCarthy said,
“We’ve gotta challenge them on every single bill.”

Not only did these Senior members of Congress plot to destroy the American Economy more than it already was destroyed? They actually carried out their mission:

- Every one of these Senior members of Congress have threatened Government Shutdown over things like:
not funding planned parenthood, not raising the Debt Ceiling which, in-and-of-itself, would cause US Economic turmoil.

… oh, and stay current, these same House GOP members of Congress are still, today, threatening a Government Shutdown.

- Senators: Jim DeMint, Jon Kyl, Tom Coburn, John Ensign, and Bob Corker have
- Filibustered more Bills than any Congress combined in US History.
- Voted NO on every single piece of Legislation brought to the Floor including: NO on Al Franken’s Anti-Rape Amendment, NO on Lilly Ledbetter, NO on Fair Pay Act.

- Representatives: Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Pete Sessions, Jeb Hensarling, Pete Hoekstra and Dan Lungren
- Voted NO on every single piece of Legislation; including NO on increasing FEMA during natural disasters.
- Have been on tv constantly chanting the lie that they were guilty of … the lie that “President Obama’s policies undermine the US Economy.”

     Yes, these Republican Congressional leaders used Karl Rove’s playbook and falsely accused the President of what they were guilty of: Intentionally Undermining the US Economy.  And, again, in keeping with Karl Rove propaganda, they chant the same lie over and over and over again.

    America had been at war since 2001.  The Constitution says a person can only be guilty of “Treason” while America is engaged in war — we are at war.  The Constitution says “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.  I believe that plotting to undermine the President of the United States by destroying and weakening the US Economy directly aids the enemy. Treason?

    As for impeachment, only one Senator has ever been impeached.

    These members of Congress, are paid to do The People’s work.  They are not paid to plot ways to undermine American families by destroying the US Economy.

    Their acts that night are disgusting, repulsive, unbecoming of a member of Congress and they should be expelled from Congress for their covert plot to destroy and weaken America’s Economy and for obstructing The People’s work from getting done.

     I urge everyone to contact Darrell Issa and tell him to:

Hold Hearings to Expel the following people from Congress for plotting to undermine the President by destroy to the US Economy:
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA)
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA),
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX),
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX),
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI)
Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA),
Sen. Jim DeMint (SC-R),
Sen. Jon Kyl (AZ-R),
Sen. Tom Coburn (OK-R),
Sen. John Ensign (NV-R) and
Sen. Bob Corker (TN-R).

I don’t know if they committed Treason, but I do know they are Traitors and Traitors have no business writing or voting on US Laws.

Oh, the next time you hear the GOP say “Obama wants to destroy the economy” or “Government Shutdown” … remember … as Newt Gingrich said after their four hour dinner on January 20, 2009 “You’ll remember this as the day the seeds of 2012 were sown.”

   To Translate GINGRICH:
“You’ll remember this day as they day we became Traitors to the United States.“

Originally posted to cc on Fri Apr 27, 2012 at 09:26 AM PDT.

Pete Sessions from Texas?  That great free marketeer, promised to do what he could to kill our economic recovery?  Do his constituents, especially those who work at the General Motors plant in Arlington, Texas, know about that?

More:

• Article at Daily Beast on this and other revelations from the book
• Simon and Schuster’s page on Do Not Ask What Good We Do, Draper’s book (buy the book at a discount there)
• View from a different angle:  Review of the book in Wall Street Journal

Bill Moyers warns Rep. West against reviving McCarthyism in 2012

Moyers has better historic video than I could find; Moyers is right on this issue.  Rep. Allen West owes all Americans an apology for his rash and wrong remarks.

Bill Moyers Essay: The Ghost of McCarthyism

April 26, 2012

In this broadcast essay, Bill connects the disgraceful McCarthyism of the past to its modern resurgence in the comments of Rep. Allen West and others. Haven’t we learned this lesson already?

Resources: 

• Website for Moyers & Co. (lots of good video, plus transcripts)
• Politico on West’s remarks
• McCarthyism Reborn in Republican Pitched by Some as Romney Veep (themoderatevoice.com)
• McCarthyism: Was Senator Joe McCarthy Right or Wrong? (theconservativehillbilly.wordpress.com)
• Commentary: Bill Moyers – The Ghost Of Joe McCarthy Slithers Again (freeinternetpress.com)
• The ghost of McCarthyism alive in West (craigconsidinetcd.wordpress.com)
• McCarthyism: Was Senator Joe McCarthy Right or Wrong? (votingamerican.wordpress.com)
• 3/14-15 What was McCarthyism? (dohertyformodernus.wordpress.com) (This is a U.S. history class website)

Oh, grow up:  The Wall of Shame, suckers who grant credence to Rep. West’s McCarthyist whine:

• Don’t Let the Organized Left’s Charges of “McCarthyism” Deter You – Allen West Is Right (nicedeb.wordpress.com) (What more can you say about a site who advertises it’s part of the “Moronosphere News Network?”)
• Cliff Kincaid at the misnamed Accuracy in Media

ObamaCare: Making stuff up to complain about

Collected on Facebook, April 16, 2012:

It even offers a page and line -- page 114, line 22. But that page has nothing to do with what the caption on the truck says.

Here’s the text from H.R. 3200, the Affordable Care Act, on page 114.  Where’s the language this guy complains about?

17 ‘‘(b) LIMITATIONS ON USE OF DATA.—Nothing in this
18 section shall be construed to permit the use of information
19 collected under this section in a manner that would ad
20 versely affect any individual.
21 ‘‘(c) PROTECTION OF DATA.—The Secretary shall en
22 sure (through the promulgation of regulations or otherwise)
23 that all data collected pursuant to subsection (a) are—
24 ‘‘(1) used and disclosed in a manner that meets
25 the HIPAA* privacy and security law (as defined in

[continuing to page 115]

1 section 3009(a)(2) of the Public Health Service Act),
2 including any privacy or security standard adopted
3 under section 3004 of such Act; and
4 ‘‘(2) protected from all inappropriate internal
5 use by any entity that collects, stores, or receives the
6 data, including use of such data in determinations of
7 eligibility (or continued eligibility) in health plans,
8 and from other inappropriate uses, as defined by the
9 Secretary.

That GPO version of the bill is searchable in .pdf form — searching for “Congress” I find no reference to any part that exempts Congress.  Searching for “exemption,” I find no mention of any exemption from any provision that applies to Congress or the President.

So, what are the anti-ObamaCare fanatics really concerned about?  Is there language in the bill that exempts either Congress or the President, from any provision?

Some guy is so obsessed with hatred for President Obama and health care reform that he paints the offending part on his truck.  But he gets the law wrong.

Dear Reader, what am I missing?  Can you explain?

I wonder if the guy is into tattoos.

_____________

*  HIPAA is The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA; Pub.L. 104-191, 110 Stat. 1936, enacted August 21, 1996)

_____________

PPS:  Here’s the text of H. R. 3590, the number of the bill that finally passed.  I can’t find any more light there, either.

_____________

Update: In comments, blueollie refers us to a Forbes blog article that both reveals the truth of the matter — Congress and the President get no special treatment — and the origins of the hoax.

So, here’s the real deal –As things currently stand, Members of Congress and their staff, until 2014, will continue to participate in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). This program, considered among the best in the nation, allows federal employees- including Members of Congress and their staff- to choose from a wide range of health plans and select the one that best suits their needs. Note that the current plan is neither ‘government’ insurance, ‘free’ insurance nor any other sort of sweet deal that the public has been led to believe is the case. The federal employee’s program involves private insurance policies with premiums, deductibles, co-pays, etc.

Here’s the surprise – come 2014, when the lion’s share of the ACA provisions come on line, Members of Congress and their staff will be required to buy their health insurance on an exchange. In fact, their choices will be even more limited than our own. While it is expected that some 24 million people will elect to purchase their health care policy on a state run exchange, we are not required by law to do so. Members of Congress and their staff, however, must buy their insurance in this way.

There you have it.  That guy, whoever he is, had his truck painted erroneously.  We hope he doesn’t have a close relationship with the tattoo parlor.

_____________

So many hoaxes relating to Barack Obama; do you think there’s a shop somewhere with a dozen people sitting around dreaming up these hoaxes?  What else explains the sheer number of Obama-related hoaxes?

Two presidents, 26 years: The Reagan/Obama plan

MoveOn.org wonders whether Warren Buffett is a time traveler.  I wonder about that old adage about an idea whose time has come.

I still think we need to pay more attention to making good jobs, and making jobs we have, pay better.   More taxpayers in the middle class reduces everyone’s tax burden and balances budgets.

Can you help Ruthelle to keep her right to vote?

An 84-year-old Wisconsin woman, told she can’t vote for the first time in 75 years, because she lacks an “appropriate” birth certificate, and perhaps she’s been spelling her name differently from how Wisconsin wants her to spell it, for more than 80 years.

Meanwhile, has anyone ever found any voter fraud that I.D. can stop?

Since voting is a civil liberty, the ACLU is working to keep Ruthelle voting.

Volunteer to help, here.