From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…
Wow---You Don’t See This Every Day
Now that the Supreme Court battle over Obamacare is behind us, I think people are finally starting to unclench their fists, dry their tears and actually take a peek-a-boo at what's in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Deficiencies aside, there's a lot to like about it, and it was nice yesterday when I opened my dead-tree copy of The Portland Press Herald and found several letters in favor of the progressive vision of healthcare reform, including Obamacare.
Here are a couple notable snips. This is from a medical doctor in Cape Elizabeth, who succinctly lists reasons "Why I support the Affordable Health Care Act", including…
Preventive care: Before the ACA, some immunizations were covered and some were not. Before the ACA, some preventive exams were covered some were not. After the ACA, all immunizations and all preventive exams in all health plans in all 50 states are covered. This, of course, is my favorite thing about the ACA. I get to spend more time preventing heart disease and cancer and less time treating heart disease and cancer.
Approved...and upheld.
Insurance companies pay for care, not advertising and CEO salaries.
Before the ACA, insurance companies spent 40 percent of its premiums for overhead. About 60 percent went to patient care. Note that Angela Braly, CEO of Anthem/WellPoint, made $13 million in 2009.
After the ACA, insurance companies must spend 80 to 85 percent of premiums on patient care. If not, they must pay the customer (you and me) a rebate check. Hopefully, some of that will come from Ms. Braly.
And a reader in Cumberland Foreside delivers a lovely broadside against the sniveling opposition:
"Get over it, Republicans."
After the Supreme Court voted to stop the 2000 Florida recount, thus awarding George W. Bush the presidency of the United States, the Republican Party had a message for Democrats: "You lost, get over it." [...] Rather than vilify Justice Roberts and take valuable time in the House of Representatives taking a symbolic vote to repeal the new [health care] law, it is time for conservatives and the Republican Party to take their own advice, admit they lost and get over it.
Amen. Although what those whiners really "lost" was a status-quo health insurance system that was almost completely rigged against them and their families. I swear, if a Democrat came up with a cure for cancer, Republicans would immediately find reasons to oppose it. These days it's the only thing they know how to do.
Write letters to the editor. They get people talking. And, occasionally, thinking.
Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]
Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Note: Today is your last chance to celebrate Christmas in July. Tomorrow: Easter in August!!!
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til the first presidential debate (in Denver): 64
Days 'til Lollapalooza in Chicago: 3
Percent of Mainers in an online survey by The Portland Press Herald who disagree with Governor Paul LePage's statement, "If you come from Maine, you're looked down upon": 81%
Existing record average July high temperature in St. Louis, set in 1901: 87.4 degrees
Current average high temperature for July, 2012 in St. Louis: 88.9 degrees
(Source: National Weather Service)
Percent of Americans who don’t believe they'll become rich one day: 72%
(Source: Gallup poll)
Days it takes for taste buds to regenerate: 10
(Source: Parade)
U.S. Olympic Medal Count: Gold: 5 Silver: 7 Bronze: 6
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Tuesday Words of Wisdom from the Right-wing Blogosphere:
All I can do is shake my head and ask myself how did we as America make it this long with idiots like this zombie controlling our Lamestream Media. This goes back as far as Walter Cronkite, what a scam he pulled on the American public…”the most trusted name in news”…bull feathers…he cost us a victory in war, with a price of over 50,000 dead American heroes and 100,000′s of injured. It’s the liberal way…not their lives not their money.
---Commenter isright at the Michelle Malkin blog
All together now: 1…2…3…
Classy!
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Arch enemies
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CHEERS to letters worth opening. Good news from U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren's campaign, via email yesterday:
Elizabeth will be speaking at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night with President Bill Clinton. She was asked to speak because President Obama knows that Elizabeth is one of the strongest advocates for what's at stake for the middle class---and our shared vision to move the country forward.
Together they'll stitch together a potent argument for giving President Obama
FOUR MORE YEARS! FOUR MORE YEARS! Meanwhile a growing list of Republican muckety mucks (Cheney and both Bushes among them) will stay far away from their Tampa convention, mostly because Mitt Romney doesn’t want to be seen with them and they don’t want to be seen with Mitt Romney. But one GOP-friendly contingent will be there in droves to support the cause:
the strippers. I love it when capitalism collides with family values, don't you?
JEERS to the most ridiculous dog whistle of the day. For those of you who missed it, this is not what Mitt Romney actually said in Israel over the weekend...but it is what conservative evangelicals---aka the Republican base---heard:
The teleprompter also sent a
message: "I'm a hypocrite."
"When the Rapture comes, these people I'm speaking in front of will turn into cheesy grits (don't worry, I'll baptize them posthumously) and you'll be clear for takeoff to the Pearly Gates, y'all. Oh, and Palestinians aren't people, my friends."
Then it was off to Poland for the next subliminal dog whistle message:
"I will install as many missiles here as necessary until our biggest enemy, the Soviet Union, tears down another wall!"
Adding, as usual: [
Wink wink!!!] Message received.
CHEERS to a little help from our friends. On July 31, 1777 (gosh, it seems like yesterday), the Marquis de Lafayette was made a major-general in the American Continental Army. He said that, even though we had to "go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time," the British Army was "in the last throes of the insurgency, if you will" because we had "turned a corner," and promised that after we won the War of Independence---based on a sensible "time horizon"---we'd be "greeted as liberators with sweets and flowers." Crazy French. Where do they come up with this stuff?
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Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda… GONG!!!
This is another edition of The One Word Answer Man. Kaili Joy Gray asks: "Remember how the House Republicans came to power in 2010 with their whole 'jobs, jobs, jobs, all we care about are jobs' pitch? And how they haven't actually done anything on jobs because apparently, they think all the jobs are hidden in American women's lady parts?
Yes.
Now back to Cheers and Jeers.
Gong! Gong!! BuddaBuddaBudda… GONG!!!
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CHEERS to retroactive wedding bells. Happy anniversary to former First Kid Chelsea Clinton, who exchanged "I dos" with Mark Mezvinsky in Rhinebeck, New York two years ago. I still remember that day. There were tears and wailing about where has the time gone and lip-quivering verses of Sunrise, Sunset and anguished cries of "Don’t take my baby!" Thank goodness Hillary was there to snap Bill out of it.
"But I'm just the FedEx guy
here to deliver a package..."
JEERS to getting picked over. Yesterday we were whisked by dilapidated taxi to our dentist in a non-descript dungeon room. The hygienist stuck a sharp metal grappling hook into my gums and followed up with a miniature sandblaster that made the same screeching sound as nails on a chalkboard and made my gums bleed. Then she took pictures of my bleeding gums and displayed them on an IMAX screen. Then the dentist came in and was told: "I'm concerned---his gums are bleeding." Well, thank you Florence Fucking Nightingale. Final verdict: I need a crown, a night guard and a cap. Or as my dentist said under his breath: "I need a new Beemer."
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Four years ago in C&J: July 31, 2008
JEERS to Republicans on crack. Yesterday morning on CNN Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison---who, by the way, was the last sitting U.S. senator to be indicted before Ted Stevens---told America that if Bill Clinton hadn't vetoed a measure to allow drilling in ANWR, we wouldn’t be dependant on oil from the Middle East right now. She also told us all that if we drill in every nook and cranny in America, we won't have any more energy-related crises when the oil finally starts pumping...in 2020. The CNN anchor then expressed his admiration for her "really good point." If he was taking about the shape of her head, I agree.
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And just one more…
"It's gonna be big, baby! BIG, I tell ya!!!"
CHEERS to Culture Wars: The Next Showdown! Over the weekend I read that there's a big fundamentalist Christian gathering coming up on September 28th in Philadelphia. They call it the
"America for Jesus: The Awakening" rally, and their aim is to "save America" from "moral depravity" by praying away the gay marriage, the abortion, the titties on the TV and everyday garden-variety liberalism. During the last event like this, as I recall, Governor Rick Perry and all his down-with-the-Lord buddies tried to pray away the drought, and you can see how well
that turned out. But I'm an open-minded gay Episcopalian liberal, and I'm willing put some (non-provocative) skin in the game. So here's the deal, "America for Jesus": if voters defeat at least two out of three gay marriage questions on the ballot in Maryland, Maine and Washington state this November, that means Jesus sides with
you. But if voters say "Yes" to at least two out of three of the gay marriage questions, that means Jesus sides with
us. [
Pinky shake] Done. We'll post results on November 7. (I'll try not to gloat. Much.)
Have a tubular Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial:
“Can I pick you up?” Bill in Portland Maine asked, according to CNN’s account. Michelle Obama replied, “um, yes.”
---Talking Points Memo
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