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

IllinoisLady · November 2013

bluedahlia · November 2013

alexandria58 · November 2013

Chick - wishing you a boring day. fingers and toes crossed.

bluedahlia · November 2013

Geography Lesson!

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/06/09/republican-geography-101/

IllinoisLady · November 2013

Blue.....can't wait to get home and read more. I scanned but it looks so interesting. Seems 60% of people don't want Obamacare......a lot more seem to want ACA. Dh was upset when he heard this on morning news. Well, I said......it is 60% of the people they polled.....and you know nothing of the parameters for that. Obviously is the had used the ACA as a label, they already know the figures will be far better. SIGH !!!People love to report negatives and Repugs love to sit back and collect money for doing nothing while allowing propagation of lies. Sigh !!! Good thing I have plenty of work to do today.

Jackie

RetiredLibby · November 2013

Chicky, here's hoping to so boring that you fall asleep again!

Editorial

The New York Times

A New G.O.P Excuse for Doing Nothing

By The Editorial Board

Published: November 18, 2013

With unrestrained glee, Republicans are using the calamitous debut of the Affordable Care Act as their latest justification for undermining all of health care reform. But they’re not stopping there. The Obama administration’s fumbling is apparently a good excuse for them to do nothing on immigration reform, on a budget agreement, and on any other initiative coming out of the White House.

“We don’t want a repeat of what’s going on now with Obamacare,” said Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, explaining last week why party leaders would not allow the Senate’s immigration bill to come to a vote, or even to be the subject of negotiations.

Their opportunistic theme is clear: If you can’t trust President Obama on this issue, how can you trust him on anything else? Unquestionably, the White House handed them this gift through two kinds of incompetence: the technical failure of the health-exchange website, and the political failure of the president in falsely promising that no one would lose an insurance policy they already had.

But just as these blunders are not the end of the health reform, they will also, in the end, not stop the long march to immigration reform, more jobs or desperately needed improvements to education, transportation and other fundamental functions. The House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, was right to urge Democrats on Sunday not to be “knocked for a loop” by the Republican feeding frenzy. Most people, she said on NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” still support progressive goals like guaranteed health insurance, a humane path to citizenship for immigrants, background checks for gun ownership and ending workplace discrimination.

Republicans want the country to believe that this month’s debacle shows the overall weakness of what Representative Paul Ryan on Sunday called “big government in practice.” In fact, Americans have long been quite happy with big government programs, as long as they work. They don’t like failure, and they hate being misled. But what people really care about is results, and once the health care website is working, millions will realize that what they are being fed by Republicans is largely bunk.

Millions of Americans will pay less next year for health insurance, or get it for the first time, because they will be eligible for the big government program known as Medicaid. Half of those who buy policies on the individual market will qualify for subsidies; they will get as good or better coverage than they had. And millions of people whose policies have been canceled or denied because of illness will now be insured.

What is the Republican alternative to this government program, flawed as it is right now? There is none. Party members simply want to repeal the health law and let insurers go back to canceling policies at the first sign of a shadow on an X-ray. They have no immigration policy of their own. They have no plan that will stimulate job growth. They are in favor only of shutdowns and sequesters and repeals, giving the public no reason to believe they have a governing vision or even a legislative agenda. (emphasis added)

Over time, that will prove to be a far more serious failure than momentary incompetence. Democrats may be stumbling right now, but at least they are trying.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/19/opinion/a-new-gop-excuse-for-doing-nothing.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

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So. Ya got nothing, regressives. Nothing. No ideas, no policies, no plans, no care for this nation or the people in it. You just hate the black guy in the White House so much that you are willing to destroy this country by letting people die without health care, letting children go hungry and condemning them to a life of reduced abilities and expectations because of malnutrition, destroying retirement plans so that people have to work until they drop dead of the illnesses and diseases you don't want to treat them for or old age. You are the party of nothing. You are the party of destruction. You are the real threat to this country's future.

RetiredLibby · November 2013

mmmhmmm

RetiredLibby · November 2013

And now for an afternoon chuckle from my favorite dyspeptic political columnist, Charles P. Pierce, over at Esquire:

Please Take Your Squabble Elsewhere

By Charles P. Pierce at 9:30am November 19, 2013

The instrument has not yet been invented that can measure the size of the damn I don't give about the catfight between the Cheney sisters, gay and straight, over marriage equality. If that entire family -- war criminal sociopath Daddy, propagandist harpy Mom, gay daughter Mary, and warmongering propagandist harpy Liz -- all got on a boat and sailed off to the cannibal isles, I wouldn't do anything more than send a case of barbecue sauce on ahead of them.

The only time I want to see war-criminal Daddy again on my television is from a dock at The Hague. The rest of them can pound sand. The country has made up its mind of marriage equality without the Cheneys, and there is something toweringly pathetic about the attempt to humanize this flock of carrion-eaters because one of them happens to have gay-married her partner without war criminal sociopath Daddy breaking out the shotgun. Marriage equality is an important issue, but it is not the most important issue, and it sure isn't a kind of historical absolution that makes up for the fact that hundreds of thousands of people would still be alive if the Cheney family had been kept away from the levers of power for the same reasons we keep Charlie Manson away from knives.

I couldn't care less if Liz and Mary fight over the human-blood punch at Thanksgiving this year. What I care about is the fact that Liz Cheney has all of her father's geopolitical bloodlust and none of his obvious charm, and that she belongs in the United States Senate as much as does a gaboon viper. What makes me happy is that the Republican voters of Wyoming appear to have caught on to the cut-rate Borgia family act that Liz is trying to pull out there, and she is apparently being ratfked by the opposition. Republicans are eating their own! In this particular instance, I'm sending the barbecue sauce.

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Human blood punch! Cut-rate Borgia family! Hahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaa!

QuinnCat · November 2013

Chickadee - good news only xxo

Why is there never a there there with the GOP? No substantive alternative healthcare plan (and when they do try to describe one, it sounds a lot like Obamacare!), no there there with Fast and Furious, no there there with IRSgate, no there there with Benghazi. Where are the ideas? It's all about "no" and "gotcha" politics.

Chickadee · November 2013

ok guys.......weird, good, boring news.........that I am completely confused on how to go forward.

No chemo since Sept 6, couple weeks of rads. Scans Friday and today.

I have remained stable EVERYWHERE for a couple months.

I'm thinking well hell, now what? My onc said go home and think about this. She'll talk me through whatever direction I go but WOW. Tumor markers are useless to me, they have never changed even with progression.

Wouldn't you love to just quit chemo until something told you to start it up again.

I'm happy and very confused. Who wants a stab at a decision like this one.

pupmom · November 2013

All I really read in your post is the word STABLE! WooHoo!!

Have no clue about your other question.

My advise is enjoy the Stable Boy! But, shhhhh, don't tell DH how much you love that guy.

QuinnCat · November 2013

Chickadee - I'm confused. Is your MO giving you a choice - like chemo or no chemo? Are there no contingencies for this? Otherwise, yeah for stable!

Tumor markers - yes, my MO doesn't do them, yet my gf, who goes to a different MO in the same practice recently discovered she had entered Stage IV world (with the requisite scan followups and biopsy) via tumor markers. I wonder if they work for some cancers (she is IBC) and not others (IDC, etc.)??

pupmom · November 2013

Kam, tumor markers are notoriously fickle. I get them every time and of course want to hear they are fine, which they always have been. But if they weren't I would not be too alarmed. I have not heard if they work better for different types of bc. Good question.

RetiredLibby · November 2013

You had me at "stable!" WONDERFUL news! Doing happy dance! Enjoy the news - bask in it, revel in it, bathe in it, take it out to dinner and snuggle with it for a while. Then consider your options. But love on the news first!

IllinoisLady · November 2013

RL have to read Blue's piece yet from this a.m. Rushed home from work and changed clothes, blew a bunch of leaves.....then wash up, change, make some late lunch and then I'll go back to work for a while. It is the Dr. and Mrs. anniversary and he wants to take her out to dinner.

Anyway....I agree with my whole heart. The Repugs have a great game called who can HATE and DISTORT the most. Real human beings I guess but watch out for the twist. Nothing good can come from such despicable reasoning and motives. Too bad they can't see it.............or maybe I should say good. They open their mouth and oops a foot goes almost all the way down.....heartless in this world, with this many people to notice just won't cut it.

Esquire piece......I'll be chortling to myself for days.

Chick....stable. Does that mean some of "those" cells are too tired to do anything and have just sort of hung around but have quit functioning much. Wow !!!!You go gal.

Have to run back to work. May not be too tired when I get home to get back and chat some more.

Jackie

alexandria58 · November 2013

Chick - Had me at boring!! Happy dance here.

RL - The Charles Pierce article on the Cheney family had me rolling on the floor. I'm thinking of sending him a bottle of barbeque sauce to include in his package to the cannibals.

bluedahlia · November 2013

I love boring. Take a break from the chemo until after Christmas, and enjoy!

I'm missing our Athena.

bluedahlia · November 2013

Gustave Leonhard Jonghe 1829-1893

bluedahlia · November 2013

bluedahlia · November 2013

RetiredLibby · November 2013

From Bill Moyers at billmoyrs.com

THE POVERTY LINE

Witnesses to Hunger (and Poverty) on the Hill

November 19, 2013

by Greg Kaufman

We’re proud to collaborate with The Nation in sharing insightful journalism related to income inequality in America. The following is an excerpt from Nation contributor Greg Kaufmann’s “This Week in Poverty” column.

Nia Timmons was stressed.

A mother of three, she works full-time as an assistant teacher at a pre-K program in Camden, New Jersey where she earns $12 per hour. By the second week of November, she still hadn’t received her family’s food stamp (SNAP) benefits and she didn’t know why. She thought it might be due to the SNAP cut on November 1 that hit 48 million people, including 22 million children, but she couldn’t get any answers from the Camden Board of Social Services.

“I’ve not heard from anyone there, and I can’t reach anyone either,” said Timmons.

She told me her story in a coffee shop in the basement of the Russell Senate Office Building last week. She had traveled to Capitol Hill along with four of her “Witnesses to Hunger sisters” from Camden, Philadelphia and Boston to speak with members of Congress about the impact their policy decisions are having on people who live in poverty. Witnesses to Hunger is a project of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities at the Drexel University School of Public Health. Participants are mothers and caregivers of young children who use photography and testimonials to document their experiences and advocate for change at the local, state and federal levels. There are more than eighty Witnesses in various cities on the East Coast.

Timmons and Anisa Davis — also from Camden — shared their experiences with staffers for their representatives, Democratic Senator Robert Menendez and Democratic Congressman Robert Andrews. The other Witnesses met with legislative aides for their respective senators and representatives too. They also sat down with staffers for Republicans on the farm bill conference committee, including House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas and Florida Congressman Steve Southerland. All of the Witnesses met directly with Democratic Congressmen Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania and Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, and with Kellie Adesina, legislative director for Ohio Representative Marcia Fudge.

I was invited to sit in on the meeting with Adesina.

Quanda Burrell, a mother of two from Boston, told her story of being just one semester shy of her teacher’s assistant degree when she was informed that her Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance would run out in two weeks. Her caseworker said she needed to drop out of school and enter a “career readiness program” in order to continue to receive assistance. The Witnesses say these programs often lead to no jobs or dead-end jobs, and are frequently run by for-profit companies.

Burrell felt she was forced to choose between feeding her family in the immediate term or staying in school so she could attain a stable income in the very near future. She dropped out. But the extension of TANF assistance turned out to be just for two months, and so her only current income is a small stipend she receives for work for Thrive in Five, which promotes early childhood education in Boston. She can’t afford to re-enroll in school and now her rent is due.

“It affects you mentally, emotionally, physically — it drains you,” said Burrell. “You have to hide it from your children. You gotta pretend like you’re not struggling with this, but you really are. You don’t want your kids to feel that stress. But it does trickle down.”

Philadelphia Witness Emily Edwards works part-time as a home health care aide earning $9 per hour. Like many Witnesses, she checks in frequently with her neighbors about how they are getting along. She said that in West Philadelphia she is constantly asked two questions: “Why were there SNAP cuts on November 1? And why didn’t anyone tell us?”

“Instead of a notification, what they get is this answering machine, once they call to check on their benefits, that says ‘due to government cuts you might not receive the same benefits,’” said Edwards, who is 29 and has a five-year-old son.

She suggested that if members of Congress had “pictures” to go with the numbers and statistics that usually dominate budget discussions, maybe that would help broaden some minds about what programs like SNAP mean to people.

“Give them a face with that number, and make it feel real,” Edwards told Adesina.

Adesina said that some members who voted for cuts might be affected by stories of veterans or elderly people on SNAP, but not necessarily by stories about children.

“With children they’re not as moved,” said Adesina.

“Unbelievable,” said Boston Witness Juell Frazier, incredulous. “Unbelievable!”

A mother of two daughters, ages 4 and 8, Frazier was also forced to drop out of college in order to continue receiving TANF cash assistance. She had made the Dean’s List at Springfield College and only had two semesters remaining to obtain her Bachelors Degree in Human Services.

After the meeting with Adesina, we returned to the coffee shop and Edwards told me more about how she and her son are faring. She started her job two weeks ago and knows that she will soon face what is known as “the cliff effect”: when an increase in income triggers a sudden loss of federal assistance, leaving a person economically worse off just as they are trying to get ahead.

Edwards has been through this before, and said that when she shares her first pay stub with her caseworker she will lose her TANF cash assistance and child care assistance, and her food stamps will be cut by “more than half.”

“If I can’t afford to pay someone to watch my child, then I can’t go to work,” said Edwards. “I’ll end up losing work, and go back to having to depend on this system that’s not really helping me get ahead in life, it’s helping me stay stagnated, and it starts to become a cycle.”

Edwards shared her experiences with Representatives Fattah and McGovern.

“They just don’t give us enough time once we get that job to make the transition,” she told them.

Dr. Mariana Chilton, director of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities, pointed to research showing that families who have a modest increase in income, and therefore lose their SNAP benefits, are more likely to experience hunger than are families who remain on SNAP.

“Just when the families are doing what they’re supposed to do, and want to do — right here we’ve got a teacher and a home health aide — they get cut off at the knees,” said Chilton. “And that’s over and above the SNAP cuts on November 1 and whatever else might happen with SNAP next.”

The conversation then turned to just that — what might happen with SNAP next.

You could feel the tension in the room about the prospect of more — and deeper — cuts, and what that would mean for the Witnesses’ families and their communities. They are already feeling the effects of the November 1 SNAP cut, which reduced the average individual benefit from $1.50 per meal to $1.40 per meal. It adds up to a reduction of $29 per month in food assistance for a family of three.

Already, the Witnesses say they are all purchasing fewer fresh fruits and vegetables. Frazier struggles to buy the higher-priced, gluten-free foods that her four-year-old daughter needs due to food allergies. Edwards — who cut sugars out of her son’s diet when he was diagnosed with ADHD — now has to purchase more affordable processed foods and worries about how that will affect her son’s progress. And Davis — who is out of work and about to have reconstructive foot surgery — is already relying on food banks and friends more than ever before.

Now the House and Senate are negotiating over further proposed SNAP cuts of $40 billion and $4 billion, respectively. McGovern pointed out that the November 1 cuts will total $5 billion over the next year and $11 billion through 2016.

“There should be no more cuts. My line in the sand is that we pass a farm bill that does not make hunger worse in this country,” said Rep. McGovern. “We might have to swallow a lot of stuff we don’t like to get a good [SNAP outcome]. But do no harm is a big accomplishment here.”

He told the Witnesses that they could be “the wind at our backs, the hurricane at our backs” during these negotiations, and that over the next few months people need to be speaking out loudly and clearly for “no more cuts in SNAP.” He also said there should be protests in front of the offices of House Republicans who voted for $40 billion in SNAP cuts even though their constituents currently need food assistance.

When the Witnesses wrapped up their final meeting it was after 6 p.m. They had started the day in the early morning hours to travel to Capitol Hill and they now had to hurry to catch a train home. They felt a sense of accomplishment.

“I think our presence was powerful today because they got to hear our stories firsthand,” said Davis. “That’s what [Camden Witnesses] was basically about — 10 women with 10 cameras — taking pictures about anything that needs to be improved.”

“Anything we want to see a change in,” said Timmons.

The women and men of Witnesses to Hunger will surely continue to advocate for themselves, their families, each other and their communities. But if they are to succeed in their efforts, they will just as surely need millions of people to join them — people who are currently silent, or quiet, or taking action only when it’s convenient, like by clicking a mouse.

We will only turn the tide when we value the well being of Nia, Anisa, Emily, Quanda and Juell as much as we value our own — and we’re willing to fight for it, and make that fight visible.

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Notice what the staffer said - the rethugs only care about elderly or veterans' stories. Not children. And if you vote for regressives, you don't care about children either.