Eideard

The bishop knows where to send the check…

The Democratic-led Senate is expected to reject as early as Thursday a largely symbolic Republican challenge to a White House rule guaranteeing free birth control for women who work for religiously affiliated employers.

Even Senate defeat of the legislation would allow Republican lawmakers to take a stand in a rancorous election year debate over a policy that is vehemently opposed by social conservatives and Roman Catholic bishops…

The Department of Health and Human Services announced in January that employers including those with religious affiliations — such as universities, charities and hospitals — would have to provide free birth control coverage for women enrolled in their health plans. Church employees are exempt from the rule…

The birth control coverage requirement infuriated Catholic leaders…who think they have a right to overrule civil law in America…

Roy Blunt’s bill would exempt employers from providing health benefits that conflict with “beliefs and moral convictions.” Anyone standing in line to watch Congress explain their “beliefs and moral conviction”?

Democrats including California Senator Barbara Boxer denounced the measure as too broad, saying it could allow potentially any employer to deny additional types of health insurance coverage on moral grounds.

It’s only been about a day since the last time I said this: I realize Christianity may hold the copyright on hypocrisy; but, today’s Republicans – with appropriate aid from the Kool Aid Party – have perfected the process.

Now we get to witness temporary nutball unity between the 14th Century and the 19th Century in an attempt to turn this nation into a theocracy.

The “Mobile Informational Call Act” is an amendment to the Communications Act of 1934 and will allow political organizations, committees, and action groups to contact you on your mobile phone. The new bill…would allow political organizations to use automated dialers and robocall-systems to dial your cell phone and hand you off to a live person or play automated messages asking you to contribute to political campaigns or take surveys.

The result, should the bill pass and become law, is that you’ll be able to opt-out of specific campaigns and group calling lists, but political organizations that get your number through petitions, calling lists, or affiliated organizations will be able to call your mobile phone whenever they choose.

With the fall political campaign heating up and next year’s campaign starting over a year early, that can add up to a lot of unsolicited phone calls from various campaigns and political action committees, all looking for your help or money…

That includes you being charged for the minutes used.

As always, the best thing to do is contact your congressional representatives and let them know that you oppose the bill and would like them to oppose the bill as well. The National Political Do Not Contact Registry has a petition that you can sign to make your opposition to the bill known to your specific representatives…

Beyond signing the petition, standard rules for contacting your Congressional representatives apply: even if you sign the petition, you’ll have the most success if you reach out to your specific representatives and senators with a personal message (the petition linked to above allows you to personalize the message you send for this purpose).

Congress-critters are getting hip to the cyberworld. Some of them can even send and receive their own email without clicking on the link to Nigeria. Now, the self-serving creeps want you to pay for a new intrusion.

Thanks, Ursarodinia

Prince Eric of Richmond
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

As rescuers raced Tuesday to free people trapped by floodwaters caused by Hurricane Irene, Washington politicians bickered over how to pay for it.

The same budget arguments that nearly brought the first government default in history earlier this month now raise questions about whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency will have enough money to deal with Irene’s aftermath…

With conservative House Republicans calling for spending cuts to offset any increase in emergency funds — a condition opposed by many Democrats — the ability of Congress to act quickly on the issue remains uncertain.

“The notion that we would hold this up until Republicans can prompt another budget fight and figure out what they want to cut, what they want to offset in the budget, and to pit one section of the country against the other and to delay this and create this uncertainty, it’s just the latest chapter and I think one of the most unsavory ones of our budget wars,” said Rep. David Price, D-North Carolina.

Irene first made landfall on the U.S. mainland in North Carolina, devastating some coastal areas. Price said GOP efforts led by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of neighboring Virginia to offset additional emergency funds amount to “an untenable position and one that simply is unresponsive and insensitive to the kind of situation we face…”

Even the White House got involved in the fracas, with Press Secretary Jay Carney telling reporters Tuesday that he wished Cantor and other conservative Republicans had the same commitment to spending offsets “when they ran up unprecedented bills and never paid for them” during the administration of President George W. Bush.

Cantor and his fellow royal Republicans never address the question of need when confronted. They only answer questions with one question, the only one that counts to Republican elitists: cost and budget?

Cantor’s loyalty to corporate accountants assures him a place in infamy. That’s truly saying something in the history of Congressional scum.

A measure to restore jobless benefits for hundreds of thousands of Americans cleared a procedural hurdle in the U.S. Senate on Monday as lawmakers returned to work after a two-week break.

By a vote of 60-34, the Democratic-controlled Senate voted to begin debate on a measure to extend jobless benefits for another month, which had lapsed amid partisan bickering. A final vote is expected later in the week.

With the unemployment rate at 9.7 percent, some 6.1 million Americans rely on jobless benefits to help them pay the bills as they look for work.

Those benefits expired for more than 200,000 Americans last week after Republican Senator Tom Coburn prevented a vote shortly before Congress left town…

Democrats said the program qualified as emergency spending amid the worst recession in 70 years, and thus did not need to be offset by tax increases or spending cuts elsewhere.

Four Republicans joined 56 Democrats to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to take up legislation in the Senate.

Jobless benefits normally expire after six months but Congress has extended the program several times during a slump marked by unusually high levels of long-term joblessness.

More than 40 percent of the unemployed have been out of work longer than six months, according to the Labor Department.

COBRA healthcare subsidies for the unemployed and a federal flood-insurance program also have been disrupted. Doctors who treat patients under the Medicare health insurance program for the elderly and disabled also could see their pay slashed.

Anyone out of a job who ever votes for a Republican must be demented!

Meanwhile, a final vote is still needed and the Republicans who helped move the bill may yet return to march in lockstep towards the Dark Ages.

U.S. President Barack Obama has singled out California for failing to use education data to distinguish poor teachers from good ones. Obama urged the state to change this situation so as to receive competitive, federal school dollars, according to the Los Angeles Times.

At stake are billions of U.S. dollars in federal stimulus funds to be allocated in “Race to the Top” grants, the paper noted.

Obama’s comments on Friday echo recent criticisms by his Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who warned that states that bar the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers, as California does, are risking those funds.

Obama and Duncan made their position clear. “This competition will not be based on politics, ideology, or the preferences of a particular interest group,” Obama said. “Instead, it will be based on the simple principle: whether a state is ready to do what works.”

“Race to the Top” applicants must show progress in four key areas to compete for the 4.35 billion dollars: adopting rigorous academic standards, recruiting and retaining talented educators, turning around chronically low-performing schools, and building data systems to track student and teacher effectiveness.

But Obama also pointed out that teachers should not be judged solely on student test scores.

You’d think that was clear enough.

Humbugs all.

Officials from two federally recognized Indian tribes say they are frustrated in their attempts to protect what they consider a sacred site from becoming part of an offshore wind farm…

Both the Mashpee Wampanoag and the Wampanoag of Gay Head (Aquinnah) have two main objections to the Cape Wind project:

* It would destroy a sacred site where ancestors fished, hunted and possibly were buried.
* It would obstruct their view of the horizon, thus interfering with their spiritual well-being.

In letters to federal officials, both the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) and the Mashpee Wampanoag are critical of the federally mandated consultation process and object to the final environmental impact statement…

“The Minerals Management Service continues to work in good faith with the American Indian tribes around Nantucket Sound during the Section 106 consultation process,” an agency spokesman said in a prepared statement. “It would be inappropriate and not in good faith to disclose the details of our communications while discussions are still ongoing…”

The tribes are particularly miffed that MMS officials canceled plans to attend the “Legend of Maushop” pageant scheduled for Saturday on Martha’s Vineyard. The oral history, passed down from generation to generation of Aquinnah Wampanoag, tells the story of how Maushop, the giant Wampanoag leader, walked to Noepe, the island known today as the Vineyard, she said…

Mark Rodgers declined to comment on specific issues raised by the tribes but did point out that no burial site has been detected in the area proposed for Cape Wind.

“There were no human artifacts found,” he said. “Just some matter that could have been remains of trees…”

Though Aquinnah is on the opposite side of the Vineyard from Nantucket Sound, both tribes consider an unobstructed view of the horizon essential to their spiritual well-being as “People of the First Light.”

Forgive my cynicism, for that’s what rules my analysis of this situation. I’ve been through beaucoup dialogues over cultural and religious hurt feelings over many decades. Unless we are all prepared to redress the just grievances of all First Nation people and turn over running the country to tribal councils – whatever remains is money, a slice of the pie, something to compensate superstition.

This is not worthy of support in a democratic republic founded on keeping religion separate from state.

Republican lawmakers on Sunday criticized a plan to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for a $1 trillion healthcare overhaul and warned Congress was unlikely to meet President Barack Obama’s goal of passing the measure by August.

Republican Senator Judd Gregg said finishing a healthcare bill by Congress’ August recess was “highly unlikely” because the Senate Finance Committee had not yet completed a draft. Senator John Kyl, the Republican whip, said there was “no chance” it would be done before the break…

Obama has made healthcare reform his top legislative priority and hopes to sign the bill in October. The United States spends more than $2 trillion annually on healthcare, twice any other nation, but it ranks worse than most developed countries on measures of health like life expectancy.

Some 46 million are uninsured and have little access to routine healthcare, relying instead on costly emergency room visits.

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As the health care debate heats up, the American Medical Association is letting Congress know that it will oppose creation of a government-sponsored insurance plan, which President Obama and many other Democrats see as an essential element of legislation to remake the health care system.

While committed to the goal of affordable health insurance for all [so they say], the association had said in a general statement of principles that health services should be “provided through private markets, as they are currently…”

But in comments submitted to the Senate Finance Committee, the American Medical Association said: “The A.M.A. does not believe that creating a public health insurance option for non-disabled individuals under age 65 is the best way to expand health insurance coverage and lower costs. The introduction of a new public plan threatens to restrict patient choice by driving out private insurers, which currently provide coverage for nearly 70 percent of Americans.”

If private insurers are pushed out of the market, the group said, “the corresponding surge in public plan participation would likely lead to an explosion of costs that would need to be absorbed by taxpayers.”

Do you realize what sort of egregious contradiction is contained in that piece of claptrap? They say public insurance will be so cheap that insurance companies will go out of business. Gee, they better pull their investments out, eh?

Then, they say, after that happens public insurance will automatically become more expensive than the private insurance that was just killed off. Who’s writing their copy? He could go to work for Jay Leno.

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Janice McFadden’s story hardly stands out. The Pennsylvania woman was laid off in November after working at the same company for nearly 20 years.

But when McFadden talks about the future, she has found some cause for hope. In January, the 43-year-old enrolled in the tuition assistance program at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. The program offers county residents who have been laid off since September 2008 the opportunity to take 12 college credits — usually four courses — for free.

McFadden said the program will allow her to reassess her options while she improves her marketability and salary potential.

She is one of more than 1,100 Pennsylvanians taking tuition-free community college courses as they search for a job. Many are concentrating on new job skills, such as computer programming and accounting, to retrofit their résumés so they can compete in a turbulent job market.

It’s a trend echoed at community colleges across the country. George Boggs, president of the American Association of Community Colleges, said he has heard from 75 college presidents reporting double-digit enrollment increases this semester. “Community colleges are a big part of the solution to this economic downturn,” Boggs said. “We are the institutions that are on the ground bringing these individuals into our institutions and preparing them for a new career.”

Many community colleges have cut or frozen tuition for laid-off workers, established scholarship programs or offered financial assistance to pay for textbooks and transportation costs.

Potential expansion of programs like these were cut from the Stimulus Bill by Republicans.

I won’t take space here to make suggestions to the unemployed about what skills should be polished for the future. You’ll find someone to do that locally. My advice is throw the sleazy bastards out of office who refuse to help you get a job.

U.S. Muslim leaders say racially charged statements issued by al-Qaida against U.S. President Barack Obama are “an insult.”

Spiritual leaders of New York City’s black Muslim community have denounced an anti-Obama diatribe issued by al-Qaida second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri, in which he said Obama fit the late Malcolm X’s definition of a “house Negro”.

“We find it insulting when anyone speaks for our community instead of giving us the dignity and the honor of speaking for ourselves,” the Muslim leaders said…

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also condemned Zawahiri’s comments in a statement issued on Thursday.

“As Muslims and as Americans, we will never let terrorist groups or terror leaders falsely claim to represent us or our faith,” the statement said. “We once again repudiate al Qaeda’s actions, rhetoric and world view and re-state our condemnation of all forms of terrorism and religious extremism.”

Religious organizations don’t need any defense from freethinkers like me. But, within the climate and context of American racist history, bigotry against Muslims needs to be addressed.

Mainstream American Muslim organizations have opposed Islamist extremists from the gitgo. Only populist dimwits perpetuate urban myths saying otherwise.