Monday Reads
Posted: December 17, 2012 Filed under: morning reads | Tags: Bobby Jindal, fiscal cliff, Sandy Hook 67 Comments
Good Morning!
The embarrassingly, nakedly ambitious pol that is my governor decided that taking a stab at the birth control issue on the front of the WSJ would bring back national attention to him. The man will do anything for attention. So, I covered his suggestion to make birth control over the counter last week. Here’s some feedback from a blogger at kos.
Ah, yes. Because it’s Democrats who run around like headless chickens, screaming and wailing about “religious liberty” and how making birth control affordable and accessible to women is just like 9/11 and Pearl Harbor day . It’s Democrats who’ve said that only sluts use or want birth control. It’s Democrats who’ve said that even married couples should not use birth control because the whole point of marriage is to pop out babies in the name of Jesus.
Oh, no, wait. That’s actually the Republican Party.
But Jindal, who is also head of the Republican Governors’ Association as well as a possible presidential candidate in 2016, thinks it’s high time Republicans stand up for women and their health care because—Nah. Just kidding. In fact, Jindal manages to completely omit any mention of the benefits of birth control for women and their families. But boy, oh boy, does he see an awful lot of political benefits for Republicans if they’d stop giving Democrats such a good reason to criticize them. And that’s apparently reason enough to support the recommendation of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists to make birth control available over the counter.
Oh, and also, Obama sucks. In fact, it’s his fault women don’t have better access to birth control. No, seriously:
Over-the-counter contraception would be easier to obtain if not for some unfortunate aspects of President Obama’s health-care law.
Ah, yes. Who doesn’t remember how Republicans were demanding that the president’s health care law be bigger and better to provide even greater access to, say, reproductive health care?
Oh, and lest you think that “pro-life” Jindal has suddenly turned away from the Every Sperm Is Sacred ideology of his party, don’t worry. He hasn’t:
As an unapologetic pro-life Republican, I also believe that every adult (18 years old and over) who wants contraception should be able to purchase it. But anyone who has a religious objection to contraception should not be forced by government health-care edicts to purchase it for others. And parents who believe, as I do, that their teenage children shouldn’t be involved with sex at all do not deserve ridicule.
This comes on the heels of Jindal’s embarssingly ignorant response to the problem of the fiscal cliff where he demonstrated he has no idea what he’s talking about. Meanwhile, we’re about to suffer yet another blow to higher education and health down here in Louisiana in the name of Peyush’s search for higher office.
Governor Bobby Jindal’s administration announces sweeping state budget cuts totaling $165.5 million.
The mid-year tax cuts will hit the state’s Department of Children and Family Services and those who receive hospice care, the hardest.
Every Saturday, you can listen to Sue May of Cannon Hospice on the radio, trying to counsel families on end of life decisions for their loved ones.
But today, she has bad news for listeners when she hits the radio airwaves.
Governor Jindal’s cuts include hospice care.
“Bobby Jindal and his crew are telling us that if you have a serious illness you can’t receive any further treatment,” says May. “You can get any assistance at end of life care no symptom management, no pain control, no outreach of compassion.”
The cuts to hospice care affect Medicaid patients who are not in nursing homes.
May says thousands of terminally ill patients so often choose to die at home with dignity might no longer have care.
“Medicaid is also for people who struggled through serious illness and who have gone through all of their savings and their funds to get care and are seeking the assistance of the state to help them,” says May. “Last time they made these changes in Medicaid we found out about it on Friday and they came in effect on Monday, we don’t get any huge notification.”
Yes folks! It’s compassionate conservatism with some southern fried curried hospitality thrown in. Jindal is well know for throwing sick people out on the streets. Now, we’re going to be tripping over dying people too.
Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Republican from Texas, says he wishes Dawn Hochsprung, the principal of the Sandy Hook Elementary School, was armed with an M-4 assault rifle when she confronted Adam Lanza, the shooter who killed 20 children.
“I wish to God she had an M-4 in her office locked up so when she heard gunfire she pulls it out and she didn’t have to lunge heroically with nothing in her hands but she takes him out, takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids,” Gohmert said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
Dawn Hochsprung, Sandy Hook’s principal, was reportedly killed when she confronted Lanza after he forced his way into the school.
The M-4 carbine is a smaller version of the M-16 and AR-15 assault rifles. It was developed for urban combat and its semi-automatic version, which is available to civilians, can fire 45 rounds per minute.
Lanza was armed with a semi-automatic M-4 Bushmaster rifle and two semi-automatic handguns, a Glock and a Sig Sauer.
Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, Connecticut’s chief medical examiner, said all of the victims at the school were killed by a “long gun” rifle, suggesting the Bushmaster was the murder weapon.
Ah yes, the answer to a shoot out at the OK Corral is more guns!!!
Here’s a link to the WAPO coverage of the President’s sermon last night.
President Obama’s speech Sunday night at a memorial service for the victims — mostly children — of a mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut was a forceful assertion that the politics surrounding guns (and gun control) must change.
“We can’t tolerate this anymore,” Obama said. “We are not doing enough and we will have to change.” (Full transcript of speech here.)
Obama noted that this was the fourth time in his presidency that he has had to grieve with a community after an incident of mass murder with a gun. But, his speech in Connecticut Sunday was a significant departure from the other addresses he had given to communities torn apart by shooting sprees.
Speaking in Aurora, Colorado just days after a gunman opened fire in a movie theater this summer, Obama was somber, subdued — and decidedly apolitical. The closest Obama got to making a statement (of any sort) came in the speech’s last line in which he said: “I hope that over the next several days, next several weeks, and next several months, we all reflect on how we can do something about some of the senseless violence that ends up marring this country, but also reflect on all the wonderful people who make this the greatest country on Earth.”
It was a very different Obama who took the stage at the Newtown memorial Sunday, a president not just saddened by the tragedy but fed up with the lack of forward movement in hopes of preventing the next one.
One sentence in Obama’s speech sums up his state of mind. “I’ll use whatever power this office holds…in an effort aimed at preventing more tragedies like this,” he said — a line the incumbent never came close to uttering in Aurora or, before that, in Tucson in 2011.
Speaker Boehner appears to be warming up to the process of negotiating.
House Speaker John A. Boehner has offered to push any fight over the federal debt limit off for a year, a concession that would deprive Republicans of leverage in the budget battle but is breathing new life into stalled talks over the year-end “fiscal cliff.”
The offer came Friday, according to people in both parties familiar with the talks, as part of the latest effort by Boehner (R-Ohio) to strike a deal with President Obama to replace more than $500 billion in painful deficit-reduction measures set to take effect in January.
With the national debt already bumping up against a $16.4 trillion cap set last year, Congress risks a government default unless it acts to raise the debt ceiling in the next few months. Some Republicans had argued that party leaders should use the threat of default to demand additional spending cuts from Obama.
Boehner’s offer signals that he expects a big deal with sufficient savings to meet his demand that any debt limit increase be paired dollar for dollar with spending cuts. That would permit him to keep a key vow to his party — and head off a potentially nasty debt-limit fight — at least until the end of next year.
So, that’s it from me.What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
peej
Carissa
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Saw this story in the NYT this AM: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/17/nyregion/in-newtown-conn-a-stiff-resistance-to-gun-restrictions.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hp Apparently Nancy Lanza wasn’t the only gun “enthusiast” in Newtown. The article was both chilling & quite disturbing, at least for me.
That is a very disturbing article.
I hate to say this, but it sounds like Newtown, CT was not a safe place to raise children.
I just saw this article, it is beyond disturbing and some of the comments from the NRA folks made me sick. And that was before the massacre.
The town has its own gun advocacy group!
Oh I know, I even spent last night looking for donation connections to the towns NSSF association…crazy!
Joe Scarbourgh had a very effective editorial today about how we have to change. He acknowleges his rigid Libertarian past, but says we have to change. Day one in next session in congress, Diane Feinstein is introducing gun legislation. My view: getting rid of assault weapons will be a right step but not the total solution. It is often said that families are the first casualties of gun ownership. My comment is, pray if you think it helps but start thinking about what we want our society to be
IMO, Boehner can go f&ck himself. Putting off raising the debt ceiling is ridiculous. It should just be eliminated. We’ve never had fights like this over the debt ceiling in the past. This is still about the tea partiers (and others) hating Obama.
I heard that Boehner is now saying he’d accept letting taxes rise on the rich, but only at the cost of dramatic cuts to “entitlements.” So in order to get a tiny bit of money back from the richest Americans, we have to severely damage the elderly, the poor, and children. It’s unacceptable.
Definitely BB. His proposal is disgusting…
“IMO, Boehner can go f&ck himself.”
Ditto that BB!!! The faux outrage over the debt ceiling is ridiculous. They act as if this is a new issue when in fact the debt ceiling has been raised by every POTUS since WWII.
Barack has raised it 3 times
GWB raised it 7 times
Clinton raised it 4 times
GHWB raised it 4 times
The Deity, otherwise known as Ronald Reagan, raised it 17 times
“The Deity, otherwise known as Ronald Reagan….”
— very astute characterization
It is BB – all about hating Obama, and more of the same hate for the poor of this country.
Yes.
First and foremost we must admit that we do indeed live in a “sick society”. A society that insists that the right to bear arms is a given under any circumstances but for those in need of healthcare services are essentially “on their own”.
What better way to describe our priorities such as this as “sick” when innocents can be slaughtered by disturbed minds and easy access to killing machines. How does one not arrive at the same concusion?
The gun industry is a perfect example of corporate power that has been able to exert its will over the population because the thirst for making money far outweighs the safety of the public interests. Nowhere is it considered safe any longer.
Not churches, schools, malls, or our own homes. We prefer to elect idiots like Louis Goehmert who issue insane statements along with a host of other politicians backed and supported by an industry who argue over the right to own weapons designed for the battlefield. To deny that access is supposedly a blow against our civil rights and freedom of speech. Try explaining that theory to the parents and families of those who have had to bury loved ones all over this nation on a daily basis and ask if the agree.
Mental health services are the first to feel the effects of “cost cutting”. I have no idea why they feel the urge to destroy human life. But the lack of treatment and services could very easily explain some of this disconnect.
There may be something in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the onslaught of violence that is glorified in our idea of what is “entertainment”. This latest event has left the natiion reeling under the weight of the indifference toward gun control as families prepare to bury their babies and morons like Goehmert are given a forum to advance even more insanity by suggesting we arm teachers.
Millions of weapons like these used in Newtown are floating all over the nation as we speak. The next tragedy is just waiting in the wings. A ban on these weapons is a start but it won’t solve the problems until we begin to understand that we are a sick society whose priorities are distorted and corrupted under the guise of “free speech”.
Guns, “god”, and greed seem to go hand in hand with these disastrous events which is a small comfort from those who have been vicitmized by this twisted logic.
Hey, you are spot on about guns there…check this out Pat, 11 Things Harder to Get Than Guns: Abortion, Drugs & More – The Daily Beast
See the list of things at the link. Twisted logic indeed.
Mental health treatment is much harder to get than guns.
An example of members of a sick society speaking out:
http://deadspin.com/5968935/take-that-nigger-off-the-tv-we-wanna-watch-football-idiots-respond-to-nbc-pre+empting-sunday-night-football
This country is doomed.
Wow.
I don’t doubt these comments, necessarily, because I saw similar ones and worse on Topix in the 2004 election. I do wonder how they were assembled for the blog, because I don’t think NBC would keep them on a comment site.
After the wonderful speech last night, I was anticipating the hate, and all the snakes coming out. We are doomed.
Did you notice that all those little icons on the worst comments basically had the look of some one that could be a crazed spree shooter? A lot of little angry white boyz.
Yes, indeed……….little angry white boyz, I will soon be on the phone with one.
I asked a friend of mine who is a big football fan about his view on this and he had the same reaction, though he wasn’t spewing out hate about it. “It’s sad and all that, but I was pretty saturated with it in the news and there was a really pivotal game on. Fortunately i was able to change in to channel 220(?) and it was okay.
He blamed Obama for the timing of it and when I said Obama probably didn’t dictate the timing, he still thought someone screwed up. Apparently they should have planned the event around football.
Good post Dak. Just wondering if you know what Jindal’s approval ratings are in Louisiana? I can’t imagine that those who voted for him don’t see that he’s more interested in self-promotion than in the future of Louisiana
They’ve been sinking like a stone recently but he got what he wanted from us and doesn’t care. He’s never even here any more.
Is he 2 term limited by Louisiana Law? I read that this is his second term. Well, maybe the good folks of Louisiana have learned that elections have consequences and next time they’ll vote for someone who can undo the harm he’s done.
He’s term limited. He ran unopposed last time. The worthless democratic party down here couldn’t even field a candidate. They’ve been decimated since Katrina.
http://theadvocate.com/columnists/markballard/4079028-123/political-horizons-for-sunday-oct
I don’t pretend to know what was going on in Nancy Lanza’s mind but what seems obvious from the reports so far is that she considered herself a “survivalist”.
Some of that “survival” talk has been suggested, or hinted at. by the likes of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Michele Bachmann who make their living in spreading fear and hate.
Michele was one of the first to declare “internment camps” as part of Obama’s evil plan to overthrow the government. Beck was forever hinting at “government subversion” and a call to arms with his declarations that Obama was out to confiscate every gun in the US. Rush utters this nonsense nonstop 5 days a week and the Evangelical spokespersons are warning of the coming of “The Rapture” which appeals to a segment of the population who believe in those “black helicopters” dangling overhead.
The airwaves are festooned with this type of illogic but it does have its supporters. Fox News has made an industry out of featuring these loons whose beliefs strike at the hearts of those whose paranoia outweighs commonsense. Michele is looking for votes. Beck was looking to make money. Rush is there to promote the GOP using lies and mischief to make his point.
A “survivalist” believes in the End Times. They view government as an evil entity, pursuing an agenda that strikes at the heart of their mistrust and paranoia. Those who “promote” this crap are as guilty of a role in these travesties as the gun lobbyists who earn their living pushing an agenda that is based on fear.
There is a need for a national dialogue but those who sell this stuff over the airwaves and are given a forum to smear their bullshit should be held equally responsible IMHO.
You make an excellent point. Fox News has blood on its hands for inciting people with their “end of days” nonsense. How many times have we heard the sounds of paranoia from acquaintances and neighbors repeating rhetoric they have heard from people they believe to be fair and balanced? Apocalypse fantasies seem more commonplace these days and I suspect right wing radio and television has played a large part in promoting them.
I’m one of those people who has a 3-6 months supply of food,water and other supplies like batteries, candles, matches, lamp oil.wicks, personal hygiene products, a kerosene heater and a few ricks of wood for a woodburning stove that I never use, but would if I needed it. I also own 2 handguns (revolvers purchased after I was assaulted) 1 shotgun and 1 .22 rifle. I don’t do this because I’m not afraid of the U.S. government the UN, the Scary Rapture or the elusive One World Govt, but I do believe in being prepared in case of a natural or a man-made disaster, anyone who’s been in a crippling ice storm, a hurricane or an earthquake understands why. I don’t believe that is paranoia, I think of it as being practical.
I think when all the evidence is revealed we’ll find out (definitively) that Nancy Lanza was an over-the-top doomsday prepper. While I think a doomsday is possible, because we live in natural world where horrific global natural disasters have happened in our past, I don’t think there’s anyway to prepare for that sort of doomsday scenario. To my mind doomsday means a total breakdown of all social, financial, medical, transportation. local security and military infrastructure. I don’t know how anyone can survive that, not even the wealthy, because in that scenario all the money in the world is useless I find that keeping a 3-6 month supply of food & water is difficult and requires a lot of diligence on my part because I am constantly rotating both water and canned goods from the supply shelf to my kitchen shelf because of shelf-life. I also have two 20 gallon water containers that I fill, empty and refill every 6-9 months.
My children tease me about being so prepared, They call me a mini-prepper :-). My friends give me the business about it too, BUT they all say that they know where they’re going if we have any sort of disaster. 🙂 So maybe I’m not so crazy?
“I don’t do this because I’m not afraid of the U.S. government the UN, the Scary Rapture or the elusive One World Govt, but I do believe in being prepared”
That isn’t a Freudian slip. I meant to write “I don’t do this because I’m afraid of the U.S. Govt, the UN, the Scary Rapture or the elusive One World Govt, I am not. but I do believe in being prepared”.
There’s nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with having a gun either. If I could afford it, I’d be much more prepared than I am, which is not at all.
I kept my strapped in 50 gal water tank even though I’m paying for the heating of it. That way the water rotates automatically. I’m considering an in line unheated pretank, like the ones used for storing hot water in a solar system.
All rural folk used to do this anyway as part of the cycle of harvesting and there are still companies that help. A lot of Mormon families still do this and there is a Utah based company that provides foods, even some gluten free and shelving products. I use the plastic Cansolidator series to rotate canned foods.
I keep one smaller set in my RV. It works great there where the cupboards are poorly designed.
http://www.shelfreliance.com/december-specials.html?limit=all
I hear ya, but you do remember Katrina? You do know they came for the guns, and I thought the NRA sued them? The other thing that comes to mind, is the Mormons, the women teach members how to stock up, and be prepared. I lived in wilderness (well 54 families) for 37 years, I learned a few things, and I still act out of habit, don’t know, but now I am closer to 4 grandkids, and I want to make sure should something happen they will have food and water.
“but now I am closer to 4 grandkids, and I want to make sure should something happen they will have food and water.”
I hear ya….I have enough powdered milk, baking powder, baking soda, flour, rice and dried beans to last a very long time. I’ve stored all of it in special containers to keep it dry and critter free. My middle aged children think it’s hysterical, but I remind them that I know how to feed children without going to McDonalds. 🙂
ooops, I left out the cornmeal and the pasta. 🙂
I’ve got a supply of things–including MRIs–since Katrina. It’s not about paranoia about the government coming to get me, it’s knowing they may not ….
During the home searches, they took any unsecured guns they found. That’s not exactly the same as ‘coming for your guns”.
A dear friend of mine with buddhist leanings–believe it or not–is actually scarily enthusiastic about guns. She and her husband defended the neighborhood businesses during the first 11 days after Katrina. She fired her rifle several times at folks feet to chase them off from the two bars across the street. She left because she said she was afraid she’d have to kill some one and didn’t want to do that. No one took her arson. They moved out to plaquemines parish in a more rural, bayou part of the area but she and her husband used to get into drunken fights and fire off rounds in their house. She scared the shit out of all of us. She also had a room full of boxes of food and grew tons of food in the backyard. She came from suburban Chicago about 30 years ago and kind’ve went redneck. Anyway, we’ve got a old cajun under the bridge too that shoots all kinds of critters and sells home made sausage. He stayed the entire time too. I don’t know any one that was resident and had guns that lost them to any one. They just took them from the flooded, unattended residents and if they were legally registered you got them back easily a few months later.
I don’t know why but I thought they went door to door to get guns during/after Katrina. To be honest, I read “The Last Days of the Great State of California”…………….that will get you to thinking about preparing of living and dying.
“It’s not about paranoia about the government coming to get me, it’s knowing they may not”
Precisely!!!!
Found this just now on xoJane.
http://www.xojane.com/issues/a-response-to-i-am-adam-lanzas-mother-from-a-doctor-in-the-trenches-i-am-adam-lanzas-psychiatrist
This link is mentioned at the end of the above article.
http://www.xojane.com/issues/for-the-last-time-stop-conflating-violence-and-mental-illness
Fox has a lot to answer for. They do indeed have blood on their hands.
It was Bill O’Reilly who referred to Dr. Tiller as “Dr. Killer” and not long after some nutjob took a gun and killed him outside of a church.
They promoted people like Beck who used a blackboard to illustrate his theories that Obama and his cohorts were about to turn us into a “gulag”.
Palin and her “reload” comments were disguised as politcal dialogue and Gabby Giffords found herself in the crosshairs.
Promoting this propaganda that the current occupant of the WH is stealing, undermining, plotting and planning to strip the nation of its rights is an all day assault.
Listen to it long enough and I suppose you can’t help but fall into the trap. Particularly if you deem yourself a “victim” of some conspiracy or another propogated more recently by the victory of a black man as president and the seeds are planted.
As long as these same people are enjoying “freedom of speech” by saying anything that resembles incitement the chances are we will be witnessing more of these events made possible by the proliferation of weapons brought to you courtesy of the NRA.
Everyone needs to read the NYT story that Connie posted above. Here it is again.
That is one of the scariest things I’ve ever read! I’d like to know why the fact that Newtown has all these unlicensed shooting ranges and people firing machine guns at all hours is not being included in the 24/7 TV coverage of this nightmarish story.
I noticed that the article referred to two illegal — or perhaps not legally registered — shooting ranges as “informal.” Hmmm.
The librarian who saved two classrooms of children is apparently trying to do something. One woman said if someone is on their own property and just a few yards from her, they can shoot off guns.
It really disturbed me as well. Glad I wasn’t the only one. We just never know what “lies beneath the surface” whether it’s a town, a marriage, a family what we see and/or perceive isn’t always the whole truth.
That’s for sure. And all the news people are saying how everyone in the town felt safe and didn’t lock their doors, etc. I’d sure as hell lock my doors if there were neighbors nearby with assault weapons!
Assault weapons with grenades: Connecticut Gun Laws Are So ‘Strict’ You Can Have A Grenade Launcher On Your AR-15 | Mediaite
I can tell you one thing, many people in rural communities do store their weapons (most not registered) on their property grounds……………….underneath the earth.
I think I’ve got an answer to one of the questions I had last night…the part about “don’t blame us” from Selectwoman Pat Llodra and maybe part of the reason for the feeling I had about something being held back, or that something is rotten in Newtown.
Your feeling was right on. I guess some of those gun nuts are going to have a real fight on their hands now.
I was gonna ask you JJ………….for sure.
Rick Perry: Legislature Will Work Out Punishment 4 Women Seeking Later Abortions Under Proposed Ban | RH Reality Check
Dak….That link isn’t working, still if Perry and his TX GOP’ers had one-millionth of the concern about the children who are already here as they do the zygote or the holy-sperm, we’d be living in Utopia.
I think I’ve got it fixed now.
Well the Crazy people are crawling out of the woodwork.
“Tennessee pastor: Mass shootings because schools teach evolution and ‘how to be a homo’”
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/17/tennessee-pastor-mass-shootings-because-schools-teach-evolution-and-how-to-be-a-homo/
“So, here you are, you’re an animal and you’re a god! So, what are we going to teach you about in school? Well, we can teach you about sex, we can teach you how to rebel to you parents, we can teach you how to be a homo! But we’re definitely not going to teach you about the word of God! Amen.”
Oh hell no!!!! He actually said this happened because evolution is being taught, god is not being taught in school but the homo is? Nothing like a big old batch of down home religious bullshit to run my BP through the roof. How in the hell can we ever solve our problems when this horseshit is coming from the pulpit and gullible idiots are drinking it down like it’s a sacrament? I need to get the hell out of Bumfuckerville before these folks string me and the other homos up.
Just a heads up, wordpress is acting up again…I can’t even get the comment page or new post page to load.
I doubt that any of these disgusting quotes about the horror in Newtown will surprise anyone here: http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/7-unhinged-right-wing-responses-connecticut-massacre?page=0%2C0
And Robert Reich nails it with this piece from Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/does-america-hate-its-children If only the Right cared as much about the already born children, especially those who are suffering, as they do about the fetuses they seem to hold sacred.
McArdle Wins Worst Newtown Reaction Award
By Jonathan Chait
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2012/12/newsweek-wins-worst-newtown-reaction-award.html
I have no idea why Megan McArdle has a public platform. She is undoubted one of the most unhinged people I have ever read.
So I guess the fact that apparently one woman did do that and saved two others was incorrect because all three should have died as a gang. Unhinged yes, but we already learned that in 911. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Really she is around a decade behind the times and just using another way to blame the victims.
Megan’s got me in tears………….isn’t that what the Iranians and Iraqis did back during 1980’s, and just annihilated each other, and that’s what we did WWI for 3 years, charging at each other, and no did any good……………….the difference here, is that it’s never happened in elementary school with kindergarteners………………….and this will make the difference in changing some laws.
I see the shares for stocks on gun makers is down today. This is how you hurt them.