This blog will focus on political images I have found all around the Internet, though I will intersperse some commentary and quotes that I find interesting.
Monday, February 03, 2014
Why I post anti-religious posters
I see a few posts around - other blogs, Facebook, etc. - that suggest that atheists shouldn't feel the need to harangue others about their beliefs, that it's all a personal matter. But, for those of us living in the good old US of A, too often it's NOT just a personal matter as we have people in influential positions advocating for a religious state. Those of us NOT so committed need to fight back, to argue for a state of reason. That's why I post what I post.
Sunday, February 02, 2014
Can you say, "Heartless?"
Utah School Threw Out Students' Lunches Because They Were In Debt (Click on this heading to read more)
By Annie-Rose Strasser on January 30, 2014 at 9:20 am
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A Utah school's child nutrition manager threw out the lunches of about 40 elementary school students this week after the kids' parents fell behind on payment.
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Some parents at Uintah Elementary in Salt Lake City say they didn't even realize they were indebted to the school. The school apparently made calls Monday and Tuesday telling some parents that there was a balance on their accounts, and the children of those who had missed the call were the ones whose lunches got thrown out.
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According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the child nutrition manager's original plan was to withhold lunches for kids whose parents hadn't paid. But cafeteria workers were unable to distinguish who was on that list before serving. Once the food had been dished out, food safety codes say it can't be given to another student and must be thrown away.
Gun control - beacuse good guys with guns are afraid of their own shadow
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Wife Kills Husband Mistaken for 'Prowler'
A woman who apparently mistook her husband
for a prowler shot him to death in their home, police said.
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Republicans are (quick - what's the extreme opposite of brilliant?)
Republican Alternative to Obamacare: Pay More, Get Less, Put the Insurance Companies Back in Charge (Click on this heading to read more)
Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow Richard Kirsch says that the introduction of a GOP plan for replacing Obamacare gives Democrats a moment of opportunity. Comparing this plan to the Affordable Care Act demonstrates the ways the Republican plan will harm the health care system.
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Boy, can Democrats have fun with the new Republican alternative to Obamacare. It puts the health insurance companies back in charge and raises costs for almost all Americans. In particular, it substantially raises costs and threatens to cut coverage for the half of all Americans who get health insurance at work. Seniors, the group that Republicans have scared witless about Obamacare, would lose the real benefits they receive under Obamacare. The proposal from three Republican senators is a golden opportunity for Democrats to contrast the specific benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with what a repeal and replace agenda would really mean for Americans’ lives and health.
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Free Trade and the demise of the American middle class
State of the Union: Right on Wages, Wrong on Trade (The Nation) (Click on this heading to read more)
.John Nichols writes that the president's calls for free trade weakened another excellent discussion of income inequality and how to fix it. Back in 2008 on the campaign trail, Obama tied trade deals to growing inequality, and Nichols says that's still true.
Once again, from the desk of the "NO-SHIT-SHERLOCK" news department here at Acerbic Politics
NSA phone-records spying is totally, utterly illegal
Cory Doctorow
Wednesday, January 29, 2014, 11:13 pm
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215 allows FBI to get records relevant to an investigation. PCLOB: NSA program fails on "FBI", "records," "relevant" & "investigation."
- Julian Sanchez (@normative) January 23, 2014
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As Julian Sanchez points out, the NSA's program of phone record collection is clearly, unequivocally, and totally illegal (and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board agrees). The Patriot Act's section 215 allows the FBI to collect relevant records for a specific investigation.
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The NSA isn't collecting records, it isn't the FBI, the data it collects isn't relevant, and there is no specific investigation. It's pretty amazing that there are still people (including Obama) insisting that the program is legal.
Go ahead, politicians, keep gutting education funding and see where THAT gets you.
And that includes you, Andrew Cuomo - you freaking idiot.
Saturday, February 01, 2014
Why we need government control over the private sector - they'll bankrupt you for the sake of their own obscene wealth.
North Carolina's Lake Norman Regional Medical Center charges patient $81,000 for $750 worth of snakebite medicine (Click on this heading to read more)
Cory Doctorow
Wednesday, January 29, 2014, 9:12 pm
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Eric Ferguson of Mooresville, NC was given a bill for $89,000 by Lake Norman Regional Medical Center, which treated him for a venomous snake-bite last August. Included in the itemized bill from the hospital was a $81,000 charge for four doses of anti-venom -- the same anti-venom that can be had on Ebay for $750. The hospital and Ferguson's insurer settled for $20,227, of which Ferguson paid $5,400.
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Ferguson does not fault the standard of care at the hospital ("beyond phenomenal"), but he is understandably curious about the $80,000+ markup on the medicine with which he was treated. The hospital itself is already under investigation for overbilling.
Shooting report
We got one piece of good news from a court in Connecticut, but there's a long way to go...
Wonder why our kids test out as stupid on international tests?
Taxpayer-funded schools teaching creationism in a dozen states (Click on this heading to read more)
Rss@dailykos.com (laura Clawson)
Wednesday, January 29, 2014, 8:49 pm
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Corporate education reform is giving creationism a boost into taxpayer-funded classrooms in around a dozen states. While some states, like Louisiana and Tennessee, allow creationism to be taught as science in traditional public schools, charter schools and private schools funded by vouchers or tax credits are spreading the anti-science in other states.
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Slate's Chris Kirk rounds it up: In Arizona; Colorado; Florida; Georgia; Indiana; Ohio; Oklahoma; Utah; Washington, DC; and Wisconsin, private schools for which students receive vouchers or tax credits teach creationism. We're not just talking about a handful of schools here and there, either. The number is at least 300 schools. Additionally, a large charter chain with schools in Texas and Arkansas teaches:
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... a creationist curriculum that seriously misrepresents the science of evolution. These materials wrongly portray the fossil record and the age of Earth as scientifically controversial, assert that there is a lack of "transitional fossils," and claim evolution is untestable.
One piece of fair news from our judicial system
BP Rig Supervisors Must Face Manslaughter Charges For Deepwater Horizon Deaths, Judge Rules (Click on this heading to read more)
By Emily Atkin on January 29, 2014 at 11:46 am
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The two BP supervisors on board the Deepwater Horizon rig who made the last critical decisions before its tragic and historic explosion in 2010 won't be able to easily escape involuntary manslaughter charges over the deaths of eleven fellow workers, a Louisiana federal judge ruled Monday, saying the case should be decided by a jury.
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Donald J. Vidrine and Robert Kaluz had pled not guilty in 2012 to the charges in their 23-count indictment, which accuses them of mishandling an important safety test and failing to report abnormally high pressure readings that attorneys say were were obvious signs of an impending disaster. The blast, which blew out of BP's Macondo well, immediately killed 11 workers and resulted in the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.
When powerful people have their power threatened, they will close ranks.
US intel chief James Clapper: journalists reporting on leaked Snowden NSA docs "accomplices" to crime (Click on this heading to read more)
Trevor Timm
Wednesday, January 29, 2014, 4:55 pm
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In a Senate Judiciary Hearing on NSA surveillance today, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper insinuated dozens of journalists reporting on documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden were "accomplices" to a crime. His spokesman further suggested Clapper was referring to journalists after the hearing had concluded.
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If this is the official stance of the US government, it is downright chilling.
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Clapper is engaged in the same treatment of journalists that the Justice Department allegedly repudiated just months ago.
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During his opening statement to the committee, Clapper said, "Snowden claims that he's won and that his mission has accomplished. If that is so, I call on him and his accomplices to facilitate the return of the remaining stolen documents." Mashable then reported a DNI spokesman said Clapper meant "anyone who is assisting Edward Snowden further harm our nation through the unauthorized disclosure of stolen documents." The spokesman would not elaborate further.
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"Assisting…through unauthorized disclosure" sounds an awful lot like publishing, which is what not only Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Barton Gellman have done, but dozens of reporters and editors at the Washington Post, Guardian, New York Times, Pro Publica, and NBC News.
Five more political posters...
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| Don't let the GOP convince you that they are really supportive of more jobs - they REALLY support big business and cheaper labor. |
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| Conservatives are nasty, hateful people who do our nation harm. |
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| Let's stop subsidizing the wealthy business owners. |
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| They advocate for lower wages and a poorer environment, they advocate for controlling women, and they advocate for prejudice against people that they don't like. |
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| Many Americans are easily distracted from the important issues that confront us. |
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