Flow through - toon

Thank goodness for the ACA

I fell and broke the humerus on my left arm. I will need surgery to repair it. I'm fortunate that I live in a state that expanded Medicaid, OR. I've been unemployed for a while now and I signed up in Dec. The hospital verified my coverage. So now I don't have to go completely broke with hospital bills.

I did my vol orientation at OR Humane Soc. Today.

From 9 to 3 I was in volunteer orientation. Learning about the organization and some hands on training. Now I do a session with a mentor the get to be a dog walker. Other things too, like helping with fundraising, admin support and such. Also want to do the kitty stuff too.

Could Pot Legalization Amendments be the Way to Get People to the Polls in 2014?

We all know that the GOP successfully used anti-same sex marriage amendments to get people to the polls and re-elect Bush II. Could we use pot legalization amendments to get our base out to the mid-terms and thus, retain the senate and make gains in the house?

It's worth a thought.

Here's why the baker in CO lost before the Administrative Law Judge on the issue of same-sex cake

This article at TPM explains the background and the judge's ruling. In my opinion the judge got it all correct. Especially since there is a law against discrimination based on sexual orientation in CO.

--snip
It Doesn’t Matter If The Bakery Otherwise Serves Gay People
One of the bakery’s arguments was that it still served gay clients — the owner only objected to a wedding cake that would celebrate a same-sex marriage. Spencer argued that since only gay couples would participate in same-sex marriage, it’s a “distinction without a difference”

--snip

This Case Has Nothing To Do With Whether Same-Sex Marriage Is Legal
Conservatives often argue that cases like these that allegedly impose on “religious liberty” are the consequence of marriage equality passing, but Colorado doesn’t have marriage equality. The judge notes that this actually proves that the discrimination is based on the couple’s identity

MORE at link:
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2013/12/06/3035121/colorado-bakery-broke-law/

PDF of the entire ruling: http://aclu-co.org/sites/default/files/Signed%20Initial%20Decision%20Cake%20Case%20No%20%20CR%202013-0008.pdf

ALSO. If you look at the complaint the bakery is full corporation, not just the owners doing business as a sole proprietorship. This makes the bakeshop a completely separate entity from the owners - an artificial entity. One which cannot possibly be seen to be able to exercise religion and, therefore, have religious freedoms. This is the same issue with the Hobby Lobby that's coming before the SCOTUS.

ON EDIT: Some legal eagle should correct me here if I'm wrong. It seems the "implied consent" doctrine is applicable to corporations and even sole proprietors in this context. When you get a driver's license the courts have found that you've automatically given "implied consent" for a DWI/DUI test - despite the 5th amendment protection against self-incrimination. So if you get a business license or incorporate (still needing a business license in most places even as a corp.) you would certainly seem to have given your "implied consent" to abide by civil rights ordinances - despite speech and religion protection in the 1st amendment.

CBS Must Fire Logan and McClellan - Online petition.

I haven't seen a petition yet so I started one.

Here is the link. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/tell-a-friend/10238609

Salon is providing us with a sort of Top 10 Conservative Idiots for the week.

Some of the usual suspects are there.

10 craziest right-wing statements of the week –Tea Party meltdown edition
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/23/10_craziest_right_wing_statements_of_the_week_tea_party_meltdown_edition_partner/?source=newsletter

1. Justice Antonin Scalia: “The 14th Amendment protects all races, not only the blacks.”

No friend of affirmative action, voting rights protections, or anything he deems “racial entitlements,” the high court’s least inhibited conservative was at it again this week during oral arguments in a case in which advocates for minorities are challenging Michigan’s voter-approved ban on affirmative action in college admissions. The case reached the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court held the ban violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection guarantee, in that it prevents minorities from lobbying for racial preferences, when other groups can lobby for their favored programs, Huffpo explained.

<snip>

2. Confused Republican thought the debt deal included money for Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army.

With all the dopey things said and done by intransigent Republicans in last week’s shitstorm of dopey intransigence, Republican Rep. Mick Mulvaney earned his place right up there in the pantheon. When the 11th hour deal to raise the debt ceiling and reopen the government was struck between Senate leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell, it did not have much trouble getting through both houses of Congress. But there were those Republicans deluding themselves that they could fight on.

Rep. Mulvaney of South Carolina was one—and among his objections? The deal, he said, included funding for Joseph Kony’s Uganda-based Lord’s Resistance Army. Now, that would be pretty evil if it were true. Kony is an exiled war criminal with a messianic complex known for kidnapping children, and turning them into sex slaves and soldiers who kill their own families. The funding, if Mr. Mulvaney had read a little closer, was a small amount earmarked to the Pentagon which is funding African troops trying to capture Kony and end his reign of terror and atrocity. Ohhhh…oops. It seems Sen. David Vitter isn’t the only Republican in Congress Harry Reid could legitimately claim was not playing with a full deck.

<snip>

3. Tony Perkins: Democrats are the theocrats for wanting to help the poor.

This will be news to biblical scholars. The Bible apparently says that government should have no role in helping the poor. Expressly forbids it.

This comes straight from the horse’s mouth, Tony Perkins, head of the right-wing Family Research Council, in a radio interview with conservative host Janet Mefferd. He then follows what can only be termed a rather bizarre train of thought to its illogical conclusion which is that it is the liberals who are trying to establish a theocracy in this country, not conservatives, because liberals want government to help the poor. Wait, we thought Christianity forbids that. Color us confused.

end snips/

Read the rest at link above.

Hobby Lobby Takes Argument To Supreme Court

This is no surprise. The 10th Circuit in which Hobby Lobby resides ruled in their favor that they could challenge the contraceptive mandate. While the 6th Circuit (TN, KY, OH, MI) ruled against Autocam and upheld the contraceptive mandate. The Supreme Court will likely take the case to resolve the issue of the differing opinions across circuits. Let's hope they read the 6th Circuit's decision which, written by a conservative justice appointed by Reagan. It was quite a good decision. It made the point that the corporation, Autocam, is not a person and therefore does not have rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). That was the correct decision in my opinion.

Craft store Hobby Lobby filed papers with the Supreme Court on Monday asking it to look at its case against the Obama administration’s mandate that the company pay for birth control and abortion-causing drugs for employees.

The Health and Human Services mandate, Hobby Lobby argues, violates their religious freedom.

A federal court has already ruled in the Christian company’s favor, reports LifeNews.com.

http://freebeacon.com/hobby-lobby-takes-argument-to-supreme-court/

What does the member status "Flagged for Review" mean.

This seems relatively new and like something MIRT and admins might use to put members on a watch list? What's it mean and what does it do?

I Hope the Debacle proves to people that Calgary Ted Should NEVER be President.

Calgary Ted, the Senator from Canada should never, never, never be President. If he enters the primaries for 2016 then we need to start playing his "Green Eggs and Ham" clip endlessly and ceaselessly remind people he's actually from Canada.

There is this general thought that all people who want to be President are self-centered, narcissists and that is true to some extent. Calgary Ted though, totally takes the cake. Every time I see his face and that smug little smirk it makes me want to scream.