Executive orders prompt Michele Bachmann to sue the President

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/01/30/bachmann-sue-executive-order/

and now for today's republican crazy

Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN) says that the House is prepared to sue President Obama over his threat to use executive orders if Congress fails to act on some of his agenda. She and other Republicans feel he’s usurping the power of Congress with executive orders. One of the things she said was:

“Obamacare is the passed law of the land and yet the president has changed Obamacare at least 17 times on his own, unilaterally, without going through the legislative action that he’s required to do under the United States Congress. 

That’s just one. He also said that he would refuse to uphold the [Defense of Marriage Act], which he is required by law to uphold.” [SOURCE]

She also claimed that he’d misused his authority to amend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) 17 times. Representative Tom Graves (R-GA) claimed it was 19. The National Reviewclaims 27 changes, though they acknowledged that only 10 of them were from Obama himself. Another 15 came through Congress, which he signed, and 2 more came through the Supreme Court.

Michele Bachmann claims that we’re the ones who want her to sue the president.

they are really bad at math but it's their facts and i do mean facts about the same subject when there can only be one number as fact.

Bachman also claims that the ‘American people’ want her to sue the president over the executive orders issue. When asked by a reporter from Now This News, “So you want to sue the president,” Bachmann replied: “That’s what the American people are calling on us to do.”

did God stop talking to her and told her to say that we want this because saying God told her sounded a little ntzy freakin' cuckoo?  btw isn't executive order from the Pres.?

David Wildstein: Christie Knew About Bridge Closures

http://www.businessinsider.com/christie-bridgegate-knew-david-wildstein-gwb-bridge-2014-1

David Wildstein, the Former Port Authority Director of Interstate Capital Projects and an ally of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, said Friday that the Governor knew about the closure of access lanes on the George Washington Bridge from Fort Lee, N.J., as they were happening in September.

Wildstein's lawyer, Alan Zegas, released a letter to The New York Times, in which he said: "Evidence exists as well tying Mr. Christie to having knowledge of the lane closures, during the period when the lanes were closed, contrary to what the governor stated publicly in a two-hour press conference."

too many people involved you don't commit crimes with a cast of thousands eventually someone will flip in the end most people are more protective of their own butts than their bosses.

Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie's former deputy chief of staff, sent an Aug. 13 email to Wildstein that read: "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

"Got it," he replied.

Wildstein also mocked the concerns about school buses getting stuck in the gridlock that ensued from the lane closures.

"They are the children of Buono voters," he texted to Kelly, a reference to Barbara Buono, Christie's Democratic opponent in last year's gubernatorial election.

levity in reference to a criminal act usually indicates lack of remorse and more of a celebritary gesture,and nervous fear of "aw crap what have i gotten into"?

most important it shows a indifference to voters just because they didn't vote your way that suggest a willingness to omit them from the process of governing because they aren't going to support you.  unfortunately public officials don't get to pick and choose who they will favor theoretically anyway, and not in NJ.  nothing left but to wait for the sneakers to fall off the phone lines.

More Republican Crumbs for the Middle Class

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/31/more-republican-crumbs-for-the-middle-class.html

Do you know the old joke about the politician who sees a mob of people marching down and street and cries: “There go my people! I must find out where they are going so I can lead them!” I’m put in mind of it by the news that the Republican Party is super-keen now to figure out ways to help the middle class. 

The Democrats have begun embracing economic populism. Polls show strong public support for many of the ideas that make up this populism. The people are marching. And now the party that’s been the enemy of the middle class for 30 years wants to join—to lead!—the parade.

So they’re gathered right now, down in Cambridge, Md., in a posh Hyatt looking out on the broad Choptank River, a couple of miles as the crow flies from the Harriett Tubman Museum, figuring out how to do things for the middle class

Let’s give them credit for this much. The typical Republican posture over the last 30 years has been: Let’s throw a party for the rich, toss a few crumbs to the middle class, and tell them we’re on their side because we’re cutting their taxes! 

“It’s your money!” as Dubya once put it. So the idea that they see the middle class as something other than a confederacy of dunces to bamboozle with fibs about tax cuts or to besot with cultural-war rhetoric is, one supposes, progress.

i believe that the only reason one would need to learn how to communicate with others of the same species would be they've taken up residence under a rock. in order to be in that bag today you have to have been ignoring those you can't talk to and are totally oblivious to them and what their lives are.

But the progress stops there for now. Marco Rubio's now-famous idea about extending an existing federal tax credit to childless couples is fine as far as it goes, but since Rubio said that his proposals would be revenue-neutral, increasing the credit for childless couple by definition means decreasing the credit for child-full ones.

And Paul Ryan has been talking about poverty for months, but we still await concrete proposals. Given the general tenor of his rhetoric about government and dependency, we can logically guess at what his concrete proposals will involve.

their ridiculous ideas only make sense to them i bet he thought it was cool but never stopped to realize by defining parameters he excluded others putting them in the jackpot he claims he's fixing for those who would be less likely to need it than those with kids.  they think in mono the world is in stereo.  can't fix one and screw the other that is what get's them that 13% approval, and those 13% are probably family.

Harvard Study: States' Medicaid expansion refusal will kill thousands

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/31/1270171/-Harvard-Study-States-Medicaid-expansion-refusal-will-kill-nbsp-thousands

Twenty-five states have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. That leaves millions of people in the gap between being poor enough to qualify for existing Medicaid, and too poor to qualify for the subsidies available to buy private insurance on the health exchanges. 

Refusing the expansion is a political decision by Republican state lawmakers that will have a big economic impact for those states. What it will also cause, according to a new study from Harvard University and the City University of New York, is eight million people remaining uninsured, and up to 17,000 premature and avoidable deaths.

"We predict that many low-income women will forego recommended breast and cervical cancer screening; diabetics will forego medications and all low-income adults will face a greater likelihood of depression, catastrophic medical expenses and death," researchers wrote in the study, which was released on the website of the journal Health Affairs.

"We calculated the number and characteristics of people who will remain uninsured as a result of their state's opting out of the Medicaid expansion, and applied these figures to the known effects of insurance expansion from prior studies," lead author Samuel Dickman said. "The results were sobering. Political decisions have consequences, some of them lethal."

republican result of trying to deny the Pres., he has health care so they are only denying you and yours the ACA and virtually relegating you to ER's and death.

remember Bachmann's rant about ObamaCares will kill women, children and so on, well looks like denying which is what her party is doing really kills and they have a Harvard study backing that claim republicans just had her.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/03/21/1755271/michele-bachmann-obamacare-will-literally-kill-people/

The authors break it down more in a post at Health Affairs. The sheers numbers of those not receiving screenings and treatments: 712,037 fewer diagnoses, and treatment, of depression; 240,700 people suffering "catastrophic medical expenditures";

422,553 diabetics not receiving medication; 195,492 fewer mammograms; and 443,677 fewer pap smears. "Expansion would have resulted in an additional 658,888 women in need of mammograms gaining insurance," the authors say, "as well as 3.1 million women who should receive regular pap smears."

That's not counting the millions of idiotic conservatives who are opting out of insurance just out of spite over Obama. They'll still contribute to the avoidable death toll, and it will also be irrational.

these stats are party like this because republicans waged war on planned parenthood, and other clinics that did more for women's well being than abortions, didn't matter they aren't concerned with anything but unknown potentially unviable growths that is until they are delivered than all the noise where they stood, crickets.  those that opt out out of spite want to blame ACA FOR WHAT THEY DID THEMSELVES lot of that going around on that side of the moat.

George Zimmerman willing to fight anyone — even black people — in celebrity boxing match

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/31/george-zimmerman-willing-to-fight-anyone-even-black-people-in-celebrity-boxing-match/

Would you like to punch George Zimmerman in the face?

At least one person will in a celebrity boxing match set to air March 1 online and by pay per view,reported TMX, with at least some of the proceeds going to charity.

“Boxing isn’t new to me,” Zimmerman told Radar Online. “It’s something I had picked up well before the incident and it’s something that I liked, I enjoyed, and I kept up with it and I was able to lose a tremendous amount of weight and get a healthy lifestyle.”

this is America, kill, threaten, break laws and get on pay per view OJ couldn't pull that off. are we the ones that make this travesty possible?  we are enabling him to steal another 15 mins. here and there, me as well.

Prospective challengers are urged to contact promoters by email at fightgeorge@hotmail.com, and promoter Damon Feldman said Zimmerman would be willing to fight a black person

 hyping the event drives up the gate he knows that, must be out of supporter money bet those who sent money would love to glove up. to bad Tyson no longer has the blood letting brutality gene or does he fickle America will pay through the nose for that, America who are you?

he's having delusions of grandeur note he called the farce a celebrity event.

Out Of Control Gulf Gas Rig Spewing Methane Into Air

http://crooksandliars.com/2014/01/out-control-gulf-gas-rig-spewing-methane

Via Think Progress, yet another insult against the environment:

An “out-of-control” well that began blowing gas into the air on Thursday is still not under control as of Friday morning, according to a report from the Associated Press.

42-non essential workers from Rowan Companies PLC’s offshore rig in the Gulf of Mexico, named “Louisiana,” were evacuated, while 37 stayed on the rig to try and stop the flow of gas. Rig operator EnVen Energy Ventures said that while workers attempt to kill the well, gas was being “vented” off of the rig. Although gas, water and sand are still flowing from the well, EnVen said no pollution has occurred in the Gulf.

“All personnel currently aboard the rig are safe and non-essential personnel have been evacuated, all well control equipment is functioning as designed (and) there has been no environmental impact,” Rowan Companies spokesperson Deanna Castillo told the AP.

Unlike a spill, an out-of-control well blowing gas does not pollute in a traditional, visible sense. Instead, it releases methane — the potent, second-most prevalent greenhouse gas — into the air, contributing to climate change. Pure natural gas is mostly methane, a fuel that burns cleaner than coal or oil. However, when methane is released directly into the air, it traps heat in the atmosphere.

From an air quality perspective, it is better to burn flowing gas through a flare system, rather than venting it directly into the atmosphere, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

why won't those making decisions see that green is the way to go without killing everyone off, it seems like theirs a leak of something somewhere using fossil fuels or natural gas every week and the big business just keeps on going, Keystone supporters ignore the potential dangers, doesn't instill a lot of faith in their agenda as far as safety is concerned.

we are at the whim of those who could careless whether your children can breath, they ignore science in favor of more money taking our lives is the ultimate they are trying to take everything else, and the talk is they may take the senate and hold the congress, with a 13 % how is that possible?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGqFUyRjavc

Brain-Dead Texas Woman’s Family May Have To Pay For The Cost Of Keeping Her On Life Support

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/01/30/3228561/brain-dead-texas-bills/

On Sunday, Marlise Machado Muñoz — the brain-dead women who was forced to remain on life support against her family’s willbecause she was pregnant — was disconnected from a respirator after a months-long battle with the hospital that was caring for her. John Peter Smith Hospital finally agreed to relinquish her body to her family after a judge ordered it. Now, her husband Erick is finally beginning the process of saying goodbye to Muñoz and her unborn child, who he named Nicole.

But in the aftermath of the family’s personal tragedy, there are still some unanswered questions. It’s not guaranteed that Texas will actually change the arcane state law that allows hospitals to override women’s end-of-life wishes if they are pregnant. And it’s unclear who exactly will be responsible for paying the medical bills that resulted from Muñoz’s hospital stay, which stretched on for about nine weeks.

“They have not come to me and said how that’s going to work,” he told CNN. “But I believe I’ve heard several media outlets…saying that they’ve asked about that. They have asked that question. They said they would continue normal billing.”

After ThinkProgress reached out to the John Peter Smith Hospital, a spokesperson explained that billing is part of Muñoz’s medical records, and is therefore covered under privacy laws. The hospital noted that although Eric Muñoz may say whatever he wants on the matter, its officials are not allowed to disclose details about billing unless he agrees to release his deceased wife’s medical records.

that sounds like they haven't had a chance to come up with a reasonably humane reason for charging him when he pleaded for an end.  this is Texas don't expect to much reaching out and helping.

board of directors can alleviate that bill it's unfair and evangelically imposed on those who might not support that group.  would they still push that if the family were White?

Colorado marijuana businesses have a big problem: Banks won't take their money.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/altered_state/2014/01/colorado_marijuana_businesses_have_a_big_problem_banks_won_t_take_their.html

Afew years ago, a Boulder woman who owned one of Colorado’s first dispensaries ran into some troubles with her bank. As she later recounted, the bank told her the money she was depositing into her business account reeked of marijuana. The bank was willing to take her money, but she would have to do something about the smell. Maybe Febreze would help. Her bank, in other words, asked her to literally launder her money.

Since then, the relationship between marijuana businesses and their banks has only become more fraught and complicated. Talk to anyone involved in Colorado’s marijuana industry—regulators, market players, law enforcement—and they’ll likely agree that the biggest obstacle to bringing marijuana out of the shadows is the industry’s inability to obtain basic banking services. 

The few Colorado marijuana operations still lucky enough to have bank accounts jealously guard the specifics for the protection of everyone involved, and reports of banks unceremoniously dropping pot clients are commonplace. The front desk at Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division is stocked with jumbo-sized money counters, since most marijuana businesses have no choice but to pay the tens of thousands of dollars in licensing fees and taxes in cash. 

The situation has become so vexing that members of both parties from Colorado’s congressional delegation recently joined together to urge Treasury and Justice Department officials to do something about it.

the mega amounts of money customers would bring to the banks bottom line i would think they would Febreeze it their damn selves.

there must be something not revealed for them to not do business with what will move from ground floor to the penthouse.

he problem is that because marijuana is still classified by the federal government as a Schedule I narcotic, anyone who facilitates the cultivation or distribution of the drug, even in states where it’s legal, is in violation of the Controlled Substances Act. Banks that provide financial assistance are therefore risking prosecution as co-conspirators or aiders and abettors.

Plus, by taking money from an industry that’s still illegal federally, a bank could be guilty under federal money laundering statutes—not an attractive outcome for an upstanding, publicly traded business.

and therein lies the conundrum, this should have been straightened out along with the bill passing there had to be talk prior to the legalization about this concern why did they not sure it up then?

For a while, some banks were willing to work with marijuana businesses, even if they didn’t like the smell of their cash. That changed in June 2011, however, when the DOJissued a stern memo threatening to prosecute on money laundering charges even those operations tangentially related to the marijuana industry.

That led most banks to sever ties with the industry, and those that didn’t were extremely hush-hush about their involvement with marijuana growers and sellers. According to Michael Elliott, executive director of the Colorado-based Medical Marijuana Industry Group, those marijuana businesses that still have bank accounts try to keep multiple small accounts at different financial institutions.

Having different bank accounts means you can spread the money around, which keeps your accounts from getting flagged for large cash infusions and gives you backups in case one or more of your accounts gets closed.

makes sense pass a law that requires you to break a law in order to engage in the law, that is right wing rationale

How xenophobes control the GOP: The right's impossible immigration reform dilemma

http://www.salon.com/2014/01/31/how_xenophobes_control_the_gop_the_right%E2%80%99s_impossible_immigration_reform_dilemma/

On Thursday, we examined the bind Democrats would face if Hous

e Republicans will only agree to an immigration reform plan that forecloses (or effectively forecloses) on the possibility of eventual citizenship for undocumented immigrants. What would Democrats do if the best outcome they could offer the 11 million was legal status — freedom from the fear of deportation — but permanent unequal status in the United States?

But as happy as Republicans are to jam Democrats whenever they can, they find themselves on the horns of a more serious dilemma. Actually, they’re on the horns of two different dilemmas simultaneously. In fact, a decent alternative title to the recently released House GOP immigration reform principle would be “We Face Some Tremendous Immigration Reform Dilemmas.”

what they face is the unwillingness to compromise and let their racist bigoted attitudes stay outside of their job, their whole thing IMO is rounded off to one main driver they know Hispanics are traditionally Progressive voters letting them stay with citizenship creates effectively 11 million more Democratic votes rendering them obsolete.

As expected, the Republican plan contains no eventual citizenship guarantee, which means they’re unprepared at this time to support a plan that explicitly contemplates allowing the 11 million to become voting citizens.

Democrats are happy with the principles insofar as they nudge the process ever so slowly along, but a reform bill that precluded citizenship or erected severe roadblocks to citizenship would create obvious tension between Democrats and advocacy groups fighting for a citizenship guarantee.

It might even create tension between actual immigrants (many of whom would be thrilled to eliminate the threat of deportation) and the groups organizing on their behalf, who oppose a half loaf like permanent legal status for a mix of principled and parochial reasons.

ahh confirmation, they really don't know how to relate to non haters their rhetoric is all geared to inflame those already at the trough, these people are die hard segregationist they don't want to mingle with others not of their kind, that shows a paranoid sense of self what are they afraid of that other people will rub off and they will experience a sense of humanity and not being able to handle it?