I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

pip57

Of course we know that if no huge conspiracy comes out in the hearings there will be a) another hearing demanded b) all part of a bigger conspiracy.  Good grief!

bluedahlia

AnneW

Funny seeing that mountain lion meme. I believe that photo was taken by one of our neighbors last year. Seriously!

Yes, I think Hilary scares the hell out of the republicans. That's why the witch hunt, when they could have easily looked to the previous president for the deaths in the Middle East conflicts, as well as the consulates and embassies during his reign. Cynical, who me?

Anonymous

Agree with AnneW - the demographics are in her favor, and the WOMEN's vote is in her pants suit pocket

A woman President of the United States - YES, YES, YES     Bet the first health issue is a CURE for bc.  Any body wanna bet?

crazy4carrots

Wabbit

Anne ... so did your neighbor invite 'Mittens' in for a bowl of milk and some crunchies   Having a visitor like that would be very cool.  And a little bit scary. 

Speaking of Obamacare ... this is encouraging news.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/05/10/1994331/obamacare-forcing-insurers-lower-premiums/

Just knowing that their rates are going to be out there for a side by side comparison has already prompted 2 Oregon insurance companies to lower their rates to be competitive.  That's the idea. 

gardengumby

The demographics are in her favor, but...  this could pose some problems for her nonetheless.  Hope it doesn't, but it could.  It's crazy, but there's nothing that defines the US electorate quite as plainly as the word "crazy".

gardengumby

Great article Wabbit - thanks for posting!!!  Yup - working as intended!!!  I would imagine that the part of Obamacare most disliked by the Insurance Companies (i.e. GOP corporate hacks) is the fact that their price gouging of the public is finally being brought into the light.  There was a front page article in one of the local newspapers yesterday about the huge price differences that hospitals in various parts of the country charge.  Another side effect of Obamacare I do believe is the fact that people (and reporters) are actually starting to talk about what has been going on.

It's still important, though, to reign in the overall cost of health care.  That means (among other things) stopping the pharmaceuticals from charging Americans so much more than they charge people in other countries - as well as stopping them from charging more for drugs that are required for some segments (like say... oh, I don't know... cancer survivors???) just because they know they've got a captive audience.

alexandria58

Just saw this explanation of marriage in the Bible.  Hilarious.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/03/21/you-wont-believe-how-the-bible-actually-defines-marriage-hint-its-not-one-man-and-one-woman/

suzieq60

Interesting they are making such a fuss over the whole Benghazi thing - what about those poor babies that were slaughtered by that nut.

RetiredLibby

All of this Benghazi hysteria is so hypocritical and transparent. They can't even think of something new to be breathlessly outraged about -- they just keep having to dredge up old, old, debunked conspiracy theories and lies. Their lies didn't prevent President Obama's re-election - now they are trying to prevent Hillary from running and flattening their pathethic butts.



What is really enraging to me is that the car thief in Congress is wasting time and taxpayer money on rehashing nonsense and trying to wring out *something* nefarious from empty air. Just like the 1,234,742nd attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. WHERE IS THE CONSERVATIVE OUTRAGE OVER THE WASTE OF TAXPAYER DOLLAR IN HOLDING THESE USELESS VOTES???



What is also enraging to me is that every single damn one of those cowardly Congressscum knows what really happened. I know what really happened, based on my former career. And it happened just like the State Department said. And you know what? It was a violent incident at night, in the dark, with no convenient video surveillance cameras around, in a city with no streetlights or infrastructure, in a country that had just undergone a violent revolution and that had no effectively functioning government, in a city that had no effectively functioning government, police force or infrastructure, at a time when the entire Arab world, including most of North Africa, was inflamed and rioting for various reasons, including demonstrators who had SCALED THE WALL AT THE U.S. EMBASSY IN CAIRO at around the same time. Duh! Look at all the misinformation that initially came from Boston, where the incident happened during the day, in a fully functioning city already on alert because of the event, in a country obsessed with terrorism, caught on eleventy-jillion surveillance cameras as well as personal video devices, with hundreds of witnesses and TV cameras on the spot.



And as far as the stupidly breathless reporting of "12 versions of the talking points" - my response as a former public affairs officer in that community is: "What? ONLY twelve?! You did a good job the first time, then. Congrats - you have good writers." I did that for a living in the foreign affairs community for a number of years. I know how that goes, too - and so does the car thief trying to smear the State Department. They are wasting our tax dollars trying to run against Hillary before she has even declared. Just think how scared of her they must be.



So -- they need to just STHU and start working for the American taxpayer instead of grinding axes.



Now I am going to go mow my lawn!



L



P.S. Athena? How are you doing?

3monstmama

what about those poor babies that were slaughtered by that nut?

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what suzie said.  don't get me wrong---i'm terribly sorry for the people who lost their lives and lost limbs but for goodness sake, 21 people died thanks to one crazy man with a gun.  where are the hearings on THAT????  How can a pressure cooker that kills 3 people get a man charged with using weapons of mass destruction yet people who use automatic weapons to kill tens not?

suzieq60

Hi 3monst - missing Paris - are you?

bluedahlia

Suzie that fact does not serve their agenda!

IllinoisLady

IllinoisLady

Psycho Libby....couldn't agree more.  I'm sure when Benghazi gets put to rest something else will take its place.  Heaven forbid this President do anything right.  I just look at the amazing things that have been managed with all the Fox lies and propaganda and Republican obstructionism and think --- it seems they end up maligning themselves more than anyone else. 

Alexandria...I read the marriage piece before and loved it. 

IllinoisLady

IllinoisLady

This comes from American Prospect todsy and I'm sure is no big surprise:

BAD HERITAGE

When Jim DeMint left the Senate to assume command of the Heritage Foundation, some people questioned the wisdom of the move. Not from DeMint's perspective—after all, instead of being a staunchly conservative member of the minority party with a staff of a few dozen whose job was to throw rhetorical bombs at the majority and say mean things about Barack Obama, now he'd have a staff of a few hundred and rule one of the right's most important institutions, not to mention probably quadrupling his salary. No, the puzzle was why a think tank like Heritage would want someone like DeMint, not known for putting much stock in thinking, as its leader.

And before you know it, Heritage is taking a huge hit to its reputation. It was always known for producing tendentious analyses of issues, but the report it released this week on immigration, claiming that reform would cost the country trillions of dollars, was a masterpiece of glaring omissions and questionable assumptions; included among the latter was that immigrants and their children will never move up the economic ladder.

Then we got a little more insight into where that belief might have come from. It turns out that one of the report's co-authors, the spectacularly named Jason Richwine, wrote a dissertation at Harvard claiming that there are immutable differences in intelligence between races, and that should govern our immigration policy. "No one knows whether Hispanics will ever reach IQ parity with whites, he wrote, "but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against." Then we discovered that this wasn't the first time Richwine had opined on the alleged intellectual inferiority of certain races. With the heat growing, today Richwine resigned from Heritage.

But there may be an upside for Heritage in all this. For some time to come, their quantitative work will be subject to extra scrutiny, with observers on the lookout for both statistical shenanigans and the authors' repellent views whenever a new Heritage report comes out. The organization will surely know this, which could lead them to be unusually careful and restrained in the arguments they make. If so, they could end up producing better work and eventually overcome the damage this episode has done. But one wonders if Jim DeMint is quite the person to lead the way toward redemption.

IllinoisLady

A piece from Add. Info today as well.

If there’s one thing Republicans hate, it’s an actual free market with actual competition. The reason is simple: real competition is better for consumers and worse for corporate profits. A prime example of this is the resistance to the Obamacare healthcare exchanges set to begin this year. The exchanges will allow consumers to compare insurance plans in an open and direct way, practically a death sentence for price gouging. And it’s already starting to work.

Via Oregon Live:

On Thursday, a comparison of proposed 2014 health premiums became public online, causing two insurers to request do-overs to lower their rates even before the state determines whether they’re justified.

The unusual development was sparked by a comparison that used to be impossible because plan benefits varied so widely. But under the federal reforms that take effect Jan. 1, health insurance is mandated and every insurer must offer certain standard plans.

Starting in October, the change will drive competition in a health insurance marketplace called Cover Oregon where individual consumers and small business owners can comparison shop. Though the state’s comparison charts are far less detailed, they foreshadow what Cover Oregon is trying to do.

“Posting rate comparisons company-by-company is a taste of what is to come,” says Cheryl Martinis of the Oregon Insurance Division.

That’s how a free and open market is supposed to work. Price gouging becomes impossible when you can’t corner a market or hide your prices behind red tape.

By mandating the basic options of insurance plans, Obamacare has (or will in a few months) made it easy for we, the consumer, to see what we’re being offered by eliminating the legalese gobbledygook that currently obscures the benefits we’re paying for. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is trying to do much the same thing for credit card agreements and, again, the GOP is dead set against making it easy for consumers to make informed choices.

The real problem for the GOP is that all this rampant competition will make it clear to the public just how much the health insurance industry has been abusing them for decades. Oregon Live gives a stark example of this by citing a $169 a month plan from one insurer compared to the $422 from another for the same plan. A 250% difference is not competition, it’s deception and outright theft. But Obamacare solves that problem and makes the GOP’s talking points about the “evils of Obamacare” look suspicious indeed.

After all, if the market was truly free and open with all the healthy competition the right claims is already there, why are the pricing schemes so out of whack?

The GOP’s only hope at this point is to spread as much disinformation about Obamacare as possible, now, before the full benefits kick in and become apparent to the public. At the very least, Republicans can mitigate the popularity of the program and the attendant backlash against the politicians that have been actively trying to kill it since its inception. What they won’t be able to do, though, is throw the public back under the bus for corporate profits.

Darn.

Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/10/obamacare-lowers-costs/#ixzz2Sw3tZSi8

1Athena1

Oh, so so so so tired.....but back on  my PC and hopefuly with only the usual typos and not the total garble.

THank you all so much for wonderful kind concern. You brightened many a day for me What a wonderful groups this is. Will answer PMs individually. I have not kept up on reading, so when I able I will go back and check on news.

I am ashamed to say that I left the hospital almost 2 days ago but with either too tired or too encumbered by relatives to writer.

I return a metsters and hav taken it upon myself to se whhat silly politically incorrect signatures I can come up with. No point on being anything but stoic in something so tragic but even more inevitable. I am reminded of the WWII airmen who exacted the awful boming of Dresden. They went knowingly and in a solidierly manner to their deaths because a German victory was not conscionable.

Or perhaps I should take my cues from the broken voie of Emperor Hirohito who ordered his nation to cease its imperialist aims "and endure the unendurble."

Or, more to the point, die without good cause for the simple but most powerful of reasons: because illness is a part of nature. Not Hiter, not Churchill can summon such immense power.

None of this is to say I am a goner in a few weeks time - not at all. This is the situation:

-- I broke one vertebra. This was fixed by orthopedic surgeons, who found cancer in the bone and soft tissue, and exicsed it. No word about margins. These men would havw replaced my back if they could, though, so there has been no talk of rads.

-- Scans show a met on C7, I think (still awaiting path report)

--Sans show lesions on liver (did I mention I a a condemned woman?)

Planned treatment:

--Tamoxifen (my non experience with previous chemo makes me a good candidate for this)

--Zometa

I am still er-plus but, again, have no more details pending a fell path report.

Off to nurse this damned neck pain.....but will be back! A hug and roar to all pridemates.

IllinoisLady

((((  Athena   ))))  many roars and much love back at ya. 

Jackie

QuinnCat

Athena - I think I was on strike until you wrote.  Not thinking that way, just doing.  Checking checking checking for you.  You sound very good - stoic might be a good thing.  I can learn from you.  Hmmm, is there really a C7?  It's been awhile since I took Anatomy....I have forgotten there are so many C's, in addtion to the T's and L's.  Sending you love.  xxo

RetiredLibby

So happy to see you here, Athena! Sad about the mets confirmation, but happy to have you back among us where we can love you and support you. We'll be right here by your side, as ever.



Welcome home, my friend.



L

1Athena1

L - and thank you for you beautiful card, my dear friend. You sum it up so well.

The good thing is I can make all sorts of bad cancer jokes now.

Kam - I may be wrong about the C-something. Path report will say more.

My bigges source of exhaustion are my lungs, which took a serious squiching at the OR. Still exericisng those.

BTW: The Estrogen I took was not a cuplit, although if it were I would not have regretted it.

Chickadee

Athena so glad you are home. I hope your treatment plans buys you lots of dances with Stable Boy and Reggie. Two timing encouraged.

suzieq60

Welcome home Athena!!!

Did you really mean tamoxifen or do you mean taxotere or taxol - I know you can't take tamoxifen. Ask about surgery for the liver lesions - you never know it might work.

(((((((((((((((HUGS))))))))))))))

steelrose

Athena,

So very glad to read that you're home!!!! Sleep, sleep, sleep... and heal. I am thinking of you!



xo

Rose.

kad2kar

ATHENA---So happy you are home,and chuffing once again. You were missed so very much.----kad2kar

ananda8

Athena,

Against my own advice, I have been holding my breath until we heard from you.  Welcome back!

Enjoyful

Welcome back, dear lioness friend!  Speaking of bad cancer jokes, my lovely daughter gave me some "cancer cards" to play and I wouldn't mind sharing with you.