As you’ve no doubt heard by now, Pussy Riot has been convicted of “hooliganism” and sentenced to two years in Russian prison (which is probably not a very nice place). You may recall that back in February “…the women staged a flashmob-style performance of their song close to the altar in [a Russian Orthodox] cathedral…. Their brief, obscenity-laced performance, which implored the Virgin Mary to “throw Putin out”, enraged the Orthodox Church – its leader Patriarch Kirill said it amounted to blasphemy.” Well, I guess Russia has never really been known as a bastion of free speech.
Obama has offered Mitt Romney a deal: release five years of tax returns, and we won’t ask you to release any more. Mitt says no. You really have to wonder just how bad the stuff that’s in there is. Must be that whole Swiss Bank amnesty program.
So, it’s finally Friday again, and this has been a tough week. Of course, I haven’t had to breathe in smoke all week, either, so I guess I can’t complain. Besides, Maher is back tonight.
So, mostly I just want to get the rest of this day over already.
Pussy Riot decision dump?
Gay parades banned in Moscow for 100 years
Maher’s very special guest tonight-Alex Wagner. :hubba:
Also, the MSNBC non-prison weekend lineup should be back tomorrow with Chris Hayes and Melissa Harris-Perry in full effect.
Sorry about the smoke, art. I was thinking it wasn’t our fault until I was reminded of the local Chevron fire. You are probably enjoying the higher gas prices, too. Sure is amazing how fast they get jacked up and how slowly they fall when conditions improve (and never seem to never find their way all the way back). I don’t expect them to get much lower until after the election.
Those Russians are certainly prepared for the future with a 100 year ban on gay pride parades.
I have really missed Hayes, Perry and Maher. The Daily Show will be on vacation next week.
I may not have mentioned that there is also a new FX show on Thursday nights produced by Chris Rock called “Totally Biased” with Bay Arean comedian W. Kamau Bell. It is 1/2 hour long (and I think leads into Louis). I saw this guy at a comedy club here on a bill with Maron and ex-whatshername and he’s great. I am pretty sure he’s been on WTF at some point. We had a little back and forth on FB about that show and I think he had a similar feeling about Maron-ex. The guest on his second show was Rachel Maddow which I would say is a pretty good get even if she failed to mention Marc and Seder and Garofalo when talking about AAR and humour.
:sammy: :fire:
Oh, I’m okay thanks.
I could be a dead South-African miner, a homeowner
looking at the burned remains of my mountain dream or a laid-off fifty
yr-old who just ran out of jobless benefits.
If I watch the news (which I don’t recommend) and think about
my life the sky seems a little bluer, the air a little fresher (which in fact it was
this morning).
Happy Friday :dancers:
Happy Festivus!! Go wrestle life a little this weekend everybody :blues: :banana: :slap:
Sorry, I didn’t know Festivus was so far away.
I read something about training for Festivus here the
other day.
:doh:
andy seems to be involved in some heavy training these days.
I think it was my Festivus pole that killed my gravatar.
:rofl2:
Speaking of someone else you would figure knew her way around a pole.
Former porn performer Jenna Jameson pleads guilty to DUI
Can you ever really be a “former” porn star?
“I looked the man in the eye. I was able to get a sense of his soul. He’s a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country and I appreciate very much the frank dialogue and that’s the beginning of a very constructive relationship.” GWB
I’m sure three young women and a bunch of homosexuals must be super threatening to Mr Pukin and his fabulous country. I’d like to exercise a little free speech in his direction….
Wonder how a FREE PUSSY RIOT bumper sticker would go over in Okie land?
*****
Glad you’re breathing easier, Art. Vern- where art tho avatar? Thought it would be back up by now.
This song had been in my head all day.
Didn’t mean to laugh at vern’s loss of a gravator- thought he was just making a joke.
Political Page Turners
By GAIL COLLINS
Published: August 17, 2012 281 Comments
Let’s see if we can clear up a few things.
First of all, Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney are not the same person. They aren’t even related! Stop spreading rumors! Although they do sort of look alike and enjoy spending time together. Perhaps Mitt regards Paul as the sixth son he never had.
Ryan is the one who lives on the same block where he grew up. Romney is the one who lives above the car elevator.
Ryan is the one who spent his youth cooking hamburgers at McDonald’s. Romney is the one who used to enjoy dressing up as a police officer and playing fun pranks on his prep school friends. Neither one of them worked as a Wienermobile driver. Really, I don’t know where you get this stuff.
Ryan is the one who likes to catch catfish by sticking his fist into their burrows and dragging them out by the throat. Romney is the one who drove to Canada with his dog strapped to the car roof.
When it comes to the issues, both men are on the same page. Although the page does keep turning and you have to wonder how average voters can cope with all of the confusion.
Fortunately, polls suggest average voters have already decided who they’re going to support and, therefore, have no need whatsoever to try to figure out which page the Romney-Ryan campaign is on.
Practically the only person in America who claims to have no idea who he’s going to vote for is Senator Joseph Lieberman, who recently declared himself absolutely and totally undecided. People, do you think it’s possible that the entire presidential campaign is now being waged just for the benefit of Joseph Lieberman? On the one hand, that’s a real waste of about $1 billion. On the other, it’s exactly what Joseph Lieberman has been waiting for all his life.
Anyhow, about the issues:
Ryan is the one who requested stimulus money for his district, but he is sorry. The stimulus was a terrible thing, and Ryan had no intention of trying to glom onto a chunk of it. He thought he was just forwarding a constituent request for some … constituent thing. Or four.
Romney is the one who hired undocumented workers to mow his lawn. Totally by mistake.
Ryan is the one who voted for a massive prescription drug Medicare entitlement, the Bush tax cuts and two wars without paying for any of them. He is even sorrier about this than he is about the stimulus.
Romney is the one who passed Obamacare before Obama. But it wasn’t the same thing at all because it happened in a state.
Both men want to make more big tax cuts that will be paid for with the closing of tax loopholes. They are in total, complete concurrence that the identity of these loopholes is not an appropriate topic for a presidential campaign.
Ryan is supposed to be the Tea Party hero and Romney is the one they hated so much they were actually willing to contemplate a Newt Gingrich presidency to avoid him.
But I’m not entirely sure we can trust the hard right to know what it wants anymore. This week in Florida, a Republican primary uprising knocked out Cliff Stearns, a superconservative veteran congressman who had campaigned on his efforts to kill off federal funds for Planned Parenthood and embarrass the Obama administration with an investigation into the Solyndra loans. That sort of bragging enraged the faithful by reminding them that Stearns was a Washington insider, and he lost to a newcomer named Ted Yoho.
Maybe Tea Party voters now only want to send people to Washington who will lack the capacity to get anything done. Personally, I’m kind of O.K. with that. Also, I like the idea of having a congressman named Ted Yoho, as well as the fact that Yoho describes himself as a “large animal veterinarian.†We don’t have many veterinarians in Congress, and you never can tell when a visiting heifer will come down with a medical problem.
All right, a little more about the issues.
Romney has a plan to make Medicare solvent forever. We know this because he wrote “Solvent†on the board at a press conference the other day.
Ryan used to have a plan to make Medicare solvent forever by taking it away from everybody under age 55 and giving them health insurance vouchers instead. But that was so 2011.
Now, Ryan and Romney are on the same page when it comes to Medicare, which is that it must be saved from the $716 billion in cuts President Obama wants to make over the next 10 years. Although that same $716 billion was in the budget plan that Ryan got the House to pass this year. But it’s not like he expected it to happen. “We would never have done it,†he told campaign reporters, desperate wretches condemned to roam the earth with calculators, endlessly searching for the Ryan-Romney page.
Farewell, Scott.
:peace: :jesus: 🙁 :gate:
I see, Vern, that you have your avatar back,
:nod: :pup: :banana:
Truth and Lies About Medicare (NYT oped)
Published: August 18, 2012
Republican attacks on President Obama’s plans for Medicare are growing more heated and inaccurate by the day. Both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan made statements last week implying that the Affordable Care Act would eviscerate Medicare when in fact the law should shore up the program’s finances.
Both men have also twisted themselves into knots to distance themselves from previous positions, so that voters can no longer believe anything they say. Last week, both insisted that they would save Medicare by pumping a huge amount of money into the program, a bizarre turnaround for supposed fiscal conservatives out to rein in federal spending.
The likelihood that they would stand by that irresponsible pledge after the election is close to zero. And the likelihood that they would be better able than Democrats to preserve Medicare for the future (through a risky voucher system that may not work well for many beneficiaries) is not much better. THE ALLEGED “RAID ON MEDICARE†A Republican attack ad says that the reform law has “cut†$716 billion from Medicare, with the money used to expand coverage to low-
income people who are currently uninsured. “So now the money you paid for your guaranteed health care is going to a massive new government program that’s not for you,†the ad warns.
What the Republicans fail to say is that the budget resolutions crafted by Paul Ryan and approved by the Republican-controlled House retained virtually the same cut in Medicare.
In reality, the $716 billion is not a “cut†in benefits but rather the savings in costs that the Congressional Budget Office projects over the next decade from wholly reasonable provisions in the reform law.
One big chunk of money will be saved by reducing unjustifiably high subsidies to private Medicare Advantage plans that enroll many beneficiaries at a higher average cost than traditional Medicare. Another will come from reducing the annual increases in federal reimbursements to health care providers — like hospitals, nursing homes and home health agencies — to force the notoriously inefficient system to find ways to improve productivity.
And a further chunk will come from fees or taxes imposed on drug makers, device makers and insurers — fees that they can surely afford since expanded coverage for the uninsured will increase their markets and their revenues.
NO HARM TO SENIORS The Republicans imply that the $716 billion in cuts will harm older Americans, but almost none of the savings come from reducing the benefits available for people already on Medicare. But if Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan were able to repeal the reform law, as they have pledged to do, that would drive up costs for many seniors — namely those with high prescription drug costs, who are already receiving subsidies under the reform law, and those who are receiving preventive services, like colonoscopies, mammograms and immunizations, with no cost sharing.
Mr. Romney argued on Friday that the $716 billion in cuts will harm beneficiaries because those who get discounts or extra benefits in the heavily subsidized Medicare Advantage plans will lose them and because reduced payments to hospitals and other providers could cause some providers to stop accepting Medicare patients.
If he thinks that will be a major problem, Mr. Romney should leave the reform law in place: it has many provisions designed to make the delivery of health care more efficient and cheaper, so that hospitals and others will be better able to survive on smaller payments.
NO BANKRUPTCY LOOMING The Republicans also argue that the reform law will weaken Medicare and that by preventing the cuts and ultimately turning to vouchers they will enhance the program’s solvency. But Medicare is not in danger of going “bankruptâ€; the issue is whether the trust fund that pays hospital bills will run out of money in 2024, as now projected, and require the program to live on the annual payroll tax revenues it receives.
The Affordable Care Act helped push back the insolvency date by eight years, so repealing the act would actually bring the trust fund closer to insolvency, perhaps in 2016.
DEFICIT REDUCTION Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan said last week that they would restore the entire $716 billion in cuts by repealing the law. The Congressional Budget Office concluded that repealing the law would raise the deficit by $109 billion over 10 years.
The Republicans gave no clue about how they would pay for restoring the Medicare cuts without increasing the deficit. It is hard to believe that, if faced with the necessity of fashioning a realistic budget, keeping Medicare spending high would be a top priority with a Romney-Ryan administration that also wants to spend very large sums on the military and on tax cuts for wealthy Americans.
🙁 :gate: