The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
This category is a main category for post dealing with political issues and politicians at any level of government.
Many obstacles and stumbling blocks remain in the way of health care reform. The House and Senate bills will have to be merged, and then the House and Senate both will vote on the final bill. But just for fun, let’s look at what conventional wisdom says will be in the final bill and see if there is anything in it that will be an immediate benefit to people with mesothelioma cancer and other asbestos-related disease.
Read moreBelow is a youtube of a segment from Meet The Press this past Sunday in which E. J. Dionne calls out Sen. Orrin Hatch for the Republican’s continuing bullshit about the use of reconciliation to pass things based on a simple majority vote in the Senate. We need to be discussing policy and health insurance reform (or elimination), but instead, all the Republicans can come up with to try to “win” is to run around like Chicken Little complaining that the sky will fall if some Senate procedure is “out-procedured.”
Read moreThe New York Times has a Reuters report that five AIG executives wrote letters on December 1 stating they may quit if their salary and bonuses are cut.The senior executives at American International Group
The New York Times has a Reuters report that five AIG executives wrote letters on December 1 stating they may quit if their salary and bonuses are cut.The senior executives at American International Group
Although defeated because of eight regressive Democrats in the New York State Senate, straight Senator Diane Savino gives one of the finest floor speeches I’ve ever heard, and does an outstanding job of making the case for the importance of equality for all. This is a must watch.
Read moreToday’s stupid health insurance company tricks includes one lady’s experience of having her insurance company deny paying for the treatment of her broken wrist because it was a “pre-existing condition,” my experience with having denial codes that even the insurance company can’t explain, and the writings of some conservatives who say we can’t reform heath care insurance because it would make a more decent society and let us enjoy more leisure time.
Read moreFrom time to time I have a discussion of politics with someone at work. He’s very much a conservative Republican. Yesterday our discussion went to how far off the cliff the most extreme elements of theright-wing have gone. He kept insisting there were extremists on the left as well. And now come forth the Psalmists. Apparently they are now printing the phrase, “Psalm 109,” on mouse pads, bumper stickers, and even teddy bears. The Biblical verse Psalm 109: “Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children become fatherless; and his wife become a widow.”
Read moreWe’ve got crazies coming out of the woodwork. In Tampa we have a guy calling 911 for phone sex, and another guy taking a tire iron to a Greek Orthodox Priest (because we all know how easy it is to mistake them for Arab Terrorists), and a “Christian” group wanting to try to incite people to gay bash so they can become martyrs charged under the revised hate crimes law. WWJW
Read moreIn the Maine same-sex-marriage campaign 87-year-old Philip Spooner, a World War II veteran spoke in favor of same sex marriage at public hearing at the Augusta Civic Center last spring. Spooner says he is a life-long Republican who believes gay and lesbians should have equal rights. He says it’s what he fought for in WWII, and says he didn’t raise four sons for three of them to have equal rights, and the gay son to be treated differently.
Read moreRepublicans sound like they’re conducting a giant experiment in saying whatever they can get away with, and I suspect they’re surprised as any of us by some of the results. That’s probably too harsh, though. What’s worse is that a good chunk of them might believe the stuff they say.
Read moreRepublicans sound like they’re conducting a giant experiment in saying whatever they can get away with, and I suspect they’re surprised as any of us by some of the results. That’s probably too harsh, though. What’s worse is that a good chunk of them might believe the stuff they say.
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