“Quote of the Day”

Via: Raw Story

“I’m proud we are standing up for religious freedom,” Ayatollah Khomieni (see photo) said.

“Freedom of religion doesn’t mean freedom FROM religion.”

====

CORRECTION:

It wasn’t the Ayatollah who said we have NO FREEDOM from RELIGION; it was the Governor of Texas, Rick Perry.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/13/texas-gov-rick-perry-americans-have-no-right-to-freedom-from-religion/

~

Hey, it was an honest mistake.

.

Arizona passes medicaid expansion, giving Jan Brewer a victory for OBAMAcare

Via: TPM

The Arizona Senate passed legislation Thursday to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act after fierce pressure tactics by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer against her own party.

The Arizona House passed the budget measure with the Medicaid expansion earlier Thursday. The bill now goes to the desk of Brewer, who has championed it.

It’s expected to cover 300,000 new Arizonans and funded predominantly by the federal government.

“I am grateful to the Arizona lawmakers who have acted with courage and conviction by completing the people’s business,” Brewer said in a statement. “But I also know this in my heart: The great majority of Arizonans stand with us. Our citizens have — time and again — voted to extend cost-effective care to the working poor.”

Republicans initially rejected the expansion. But they let it come up after Brewer made good on threats to veto all bills until the GOP-led legislature adopted the Obamacare-based expansion. She even threatened to oust Republican leaders if they blocked the measure.

The favorable votes in the legislature came from Democrats and a coalition of moderate Republicans, according to the Associated Press.

Conservatives vigorously oppose the expansion, seeing as an endorsement of Obamacare.

(2 of 2) Gabriel Gomez (R-MA) – ‘GOP Genius of the Day’

Via: Huffington Post

Massachusetts Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez (R) criticized Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) for his remarks on rape and pregnancy, calling the congressman a “moron” for claiming that “the incidence of rape resulting in pregancy are very low.”

“I think that he’s a MORON and he proves that stupid has no specific political affiliation,” Gomez told ABC News on Wednesday. “I have no idea what goes into the mind of a MORON like that … These kinds of comments only come from a moron and they shouldn’t be tolerated one bit.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/12/gabriel-gomez-trent-franks_n_3430346.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

***

GIF:

I predict, SOMEDAY, when Senator Gomez runs for the GOP presidential nomination, he will mumble, “I was misquoted’.

.

(1 of 2) Trent Franks (R-AZ) – ‘GOP Moron of the Day’

Via: Huffington Post

During a House Judiciary hearing on his abortion bill Wednesday, Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said that he opposes an exemption for rape victims because “the incidence of rape resulting in pregancy are very low.”

The Arizona Republican’s comments echo those made last year by former Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.), who notoriously claimed that women cannot become pregnant from “legitimate rape.”

~

Like Akin’s, Franks’s claim is not supported by research. Medical experts agree that rape does not lower the incidence of pregnancy, and one study by the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that . . .

MORE THAN 30,000 pregnancies result from rape in the United States each year.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/12/trent-franks-rape-pregnancy_n_3428846.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

.

Senator Lindsey ‘Lohan’ Graham (R-SC) – ‘GOP Moron of the Day’

Via: Dependable Renegade

“In World War II, the mentality of the public was that our whole way of life was at risk, we’re all in. We censored the mail. When you wrote a letter overseas, it got censored. When a letter was written back from the battlefield to home, they looked at what was in the letter to make sure they were not tipping off the enemy,” Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters on Capitol Hill. “If I thought censoring the mail was necessary, I would suggest it, but I don’t think it is.”

What is especially galling to me is that Miss Lindsey allegedly went to law school, where he SHOULD have learned about this little thing called the Constitution. And yeah, as a member (and I use that term for its alternate definition) of the United States Congress, he took an oath to uphold this little thing called the Constitution.

But, as his savior and lord Jesus Christ George W. Bush, once said:

“The Constitution is just a piece of paper.”  “If you don’t have anything to hide…”

~

http://www.dependablerenegade.com/dependable_renegade/2013/06/fuck-you-south-carolina.html

.

Auto Industry Hiring Spree

Via: Huffington Post

The auto industry is about to go on a hiring spree as car makers and parts suppliers race to find engineers, technicians and factory workers to build the next generation of vehicles.

The new employees will be part of a larger, busier workforce. From coast to coast, the industry is in top gear.

Factories are operating at about 95 PERCENT of CAPACITY, and many are already running THREE SHIFTS. As a result, some auto and parts companies are doing something they’ve been reluctant to consider since the recession: Adding floor space and spending millions of dollars on new equipment.

“We’re really bumping up against the edge,” says Michael Robinet, managing director of IHS Automotive, which forecasts auto production. “So it really is brick-and-mortar time.”

The auto industry’s stepped-up hiring will help sustain the nation’s job growth and help fuel consumer spending. On Friday, the government said U.S. employers added 175,000 jobs in May, roughly the monthly average for the past year and a sign  of the economy’s resilience.

~

Read more, HERE:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/09/auto-industry-hiring-spree_n_3411531.html?utm_hp_ref=business

***

Thank Gawd, President Obama kept GM and Chrysler afloat!

.

Mitt Romney: Hurricane Sandy ‘Didn’t Come At The Right Time’

Via: Huffington Post

Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Hurricane Sandy — a major storm that pummeled the East Coast in October 2012, just before Election Day — “didn’t come at the right time.”

“I can tell you the hurricane didn’t come at the right time,” Romney told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto on Friday.

Sandy caused 159 deaths and between $50 and $100 billion in damage.

After the storm hit, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) and President Barack Obama formed an infamous bipartisan bond, with the two working on recovery efforts and touring the storm’s wreckage together in the days just before the election.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/07/mitt-romney-hurricane-sandy_n_3404889.html

.

‘The Spite Club’ – Paul Krugman

Via: NYT

House Republicans have voted 37 times to repeal ObamaRomneyCare — the Affordable Care Act, which creates a national health insurance system similar to the one Massachusetts has had since 2006. Nonetheless, almost all of the act will go fully into effect at the beginning of next year.

~

~

There is, however, one form of obstruction still available to the G.O.P. Last year’s Supreme Court decision upholding the law’s constitutionality also gave states the right to opt out of one piece of the plan, a federally financed expansion of Medicaid. Sure enough, a number of Republican-dominated states seem set to reject Medicaid expansion, at least at first.

And why would they do this? They won’t save money. On the contrary, they will hurt their own budgets and damage their own economies. Nor will Medicaid rejectionism serve any clear political purpose. As I’ll explain later, it will probably hurt Republicans for years to come.

And as I said, it doesn’t even make sense as cynical politics. If Obamacare works (which it will), millions of middle-income voters — the kind of people who might support either party in future elections — will see major benefits, even in rejectionist states. So rejectionism won’t discredit health reform. What it might do, however, is drive home to lower-income voters — many of them nonwhite — just how little the G.O.P. cares about their well-being, and reinforce the already strong Democratic advantage among Latinos, in particular.

Rationally, in other words, Republicans should accept defeat on health care, at least for now, and move on. Instead, however, their spitefulness appears to override all other considerations.

And millions of Americans will pay the price.

~

Read the whole column, HERE:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/opinion/krugman-the-spite-club.html?ref=paulkrugman&_r=1&

***

personal thought:

Rick Perry (see gif above), governor of Texas, wants to be president.

In order to do that, he must first win his party’s nomination;  supporting ObamaCARE is a non-starter. PERIOD

.

Louie Gohmert (R-TX) – GOP ‘Moron of the Day’

Via: Mock, Paper,Scissors

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) accused Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on Wednesday of being complicit in the terror attacks on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya last year and the deaths of four Americans, including the late Ambassador Chris Stevens.

http://www.mockpaperscissors.com/2013/06/01/your-daily-screwy-louie/

.

Schlafly advises Republicans: IGNORE HISPANICS and ‘reach out to… white voters’

Via: Raw Story

Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly says Republicans are making a mistake by trying to court Hispanics with comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

“I think that’s a great myth because the Hispanics who come in like this are going to vote Democrat,” Schlafly told the Focus Today radio program in a clip obtained by Right Wing Watch on Wednesday. “And there is not the slightest bit of evidence they are going to vote Republican.”

“And the people the Republicans should reach out to are the white votes — the white voters who didn’t vote in the last election, and there are millions of them,” she advised. (hey, at least a hundred thousand!)

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/29/schlafly-advises-republicans-ignore-hispanics-and-reach-out-to-white-voters/

***

“The answer is SELF-DEPORTATION, which is people decide they can do better by going home because they can’t find work here because they don’t have legal documentation to allow them to work here”.

  – Mitt Romney, GOP losing candidate in 2012

.