Month: December 2013

Oxymoronic Quest for ‘Humane Execution’ is Moronic

Buck Banks

The oxymoronic quest for humane executions only accentuates the absurdity of allowing the death penalty in a civilized society. It’s understandable that Supreme Court Justices have tried to make the process a little more palatable; and there is a meagre kind of progress in moving from the chair to the gurney. But the essential fact about both is that they come with leather straps to restrain a human being so that the state can kill him. No technology can render that process any less grotesque.

— Jeffrey Toobin, writing in the New Yorker.

Florida, the State Where the Governor Ignores Voters, is Number One in Federal Healthcare Enrollment

Trish
The governor is the clown on the right

Floridians led the nation in signing up for health insurance on the federal exchange since its inception on Oct. 1. Almost 18,000 state residents from all backgrounds have enrolled, despite the refusal of far-right Republican leaders to facilitate access to health care for the uninsured, noted in a recent Tampa Bay Times editorial.

Florida is stuck with a tea party governor who won’t talk and a tea party House speaker who won’t listen. Gov. Rick Scott refuses to repeat his earlier support for Medicaid expansion, and House Speaker Will Weatherford refuses to hear the economic and moral arguments for accepting billions of federal dollars to cover the poor.

But thanks to healthcare.gov, residents don’t need the permission of state officials to do what’s best for themselves and their families. And they are doing just that.

Tampa Bay Times: ‘Florida is stuck with a tea party governor who won’t talk and a tea party House speaker who won’t listen’

Since the site launched at the beginning of October, 281,517 Floridians have taken the first step in applying for coverage and 75,480 are eligible for a subsidy to help pay for it, according to federal health officials… [Navigator Jodi] Ray said Florida applicants don’t fit a particular profile, so far.

“They’re not necessarily the sickly. They’re not necessarily the poor. They’re not necessarily the white or Hispanic. They are a whole range of demographics,” she said.

The numbers show the need among working age people and children. While Florida is first in federal health exchange enrollment, it is fourth in population, with many of its residents seniors who are presumably already covered by Medicare.

Flashback: Republican President ‘Swaps Spit’ with Muslim Despot

Jon Ponder

Right-wing radio talker Mark Levin said he was surprised that Pres. Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro didn’t “swap spit” when they shook hands at Nelson Mandela’s funeral this week. He must have been thinking about this incident from 2005 when George Bush laid a big sloppy wet one on Prince (now King) Abdullah, the autocratic ruler of Saudi Arabia, a Muslim kingdom where laws are in part based on the dreaded Shariah Law. After their smooching, Bush took the king for a romantic, hand-in-hand walk through the blue bonnets at Bush’s “ranch” in Texas.