Rape is a pre-existing condition?

Here’s your daily dose of gigantic incredulous WTF? (Emphasis added by me.) Apparently, according to Blue Cross, once you’ve been raped you get kind of used to it? So next time it’s really not a big deal. After that your vagina is pretty much open for anyone’s business, and the aftermath of people forcefully inserting their body parts into you requires neither medical attention nor mental health assistance.

Rape Victim’s Choice: Risk AIDS or Health Insurance?

A 38-year-old woman in Ithaca, N.Y., said she was raped last year and then penalized by insurers because in giving her medical history she mentioned an assault she suffered in college 17 years earlier. The woman, Kimberly Fallon, told a nurse about the previous attack and months later, her doctor’s office sent her a bill for treatment. She said she was informed by a nurse and, later, the hospital’s billing department that her health insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield, not only had declined payment for the rape exam, but also would not pay for therapy or medication for trauma because she “had been raped before.”

via Rape Victim’s Choice: Risk AIDS or Health Insurance?.

Palestinian doctor’s daughters killed during live Israeli TV report

Saturday morning, a Palestinian doctor who reports for Israel’s channel 10 television witnessed three of his daughters killed by Israeli bombs, even as his first moments of insane panic and grief were broadcast live.

Israeli officials said shells were dropped in response to sniper fire in the area.

Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Ashi is an uncommon man. A Palestinian who works for an Israeli hospital, Dr. Ashi has been giving Israelis daily reports on the military campaign in Gaza.

“No one can get to us,” he screamed in Arabic on a live phone call with a channel 10 anchor. “My God … My God …”

via The Raw Story | Palestinian doctor’s daughters killed during live Israeli TV report.

Drewbama

Obamicon.Me – DREW by superbadgirl. Obamacise (Shephardize?) your own uploaded images courtesy of Paste magazine.

And Bush Wants to Give Women One More Kick in the C**t on His Way Out the Door

Protests Over a Rule to Protect Health Providers – NYTimes.com
By ROBERT PEAR
Published: November 17, 2008

WASHINGTON — A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job discrimination laws.

The proposed rule would prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their “religious beliefs or moral convictions.”

It would also prevent hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices and drugstores from requiring employees with religious or moral objections to “assist in the performance of any part of a health service program or research activity” financed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

…

But the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, 28 senators, more than 110 representatives and the attorneys general of 13 states have urged the Bush administration to withdraw the proposed rule.

Pharmacies said the rule would allow their employees to refuse to fill prescriptions for contraceptives and could “lead to Medicaid patients being turned away.” State officials said the rule could void state laws that require insurance plans to cover contraceptives and require hospitals to offer emergency contraception to rape victims.

The Ohio Health Department said the rule “could force family planning providers to hire employees who may refuse to do their jobs” — a concern echoed by Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Competition, Vulnerability and Why I’m Still Crying

I followed a link this morning that promised me “The saddest thing you’ll see all day.” Why exactly I would want to expose myself to more sad things, or sadder things than I’d already seen and felt recently, I couldn’t tell you. But I clicked it and saw this:

I cried for that. I cried because even though I don’t support his politics, I think that Ron Paul stands for something, that he believes totally in the things he’s standing for and that he doesn’t waver from them. Even though what he’s doing isn’t resonating with most Americans, he thinks it should and he stays true to that thought. Standing firm in your beliefs, acting on your principles even when they’re unpopular and benefit you nothing, that’s one of the only things I find admirable in other people.

I cried for Ron Paul because his body language presents him as vulnerable and yet somehow stubbornly resolute in his defeat. I cried because he looked like the most alone man in the world, and I wanted to hug him. I cried because his shoes broke my heart.

I hate competition. I hate sports. I hate the Olympics. I hate trivia night and lawn darts and fantasy football. I hate television ratings. I hate that someone gets chosen last for kickball. I hate the idea of defeat. I hate for anyone to ever lose at anything.

Last night watching his concession speech I felt sorry for John McCain, because I believe he was fighting for what he believed in, and he was confounded by his country’s rejection of him. I felt sorry for Sarah Palin because I imagined she might have the grace to feel humiliated by her ignorance and the resounding message we sent her about it. Today I felt sorry for George Bush, imagining what it must feel like to know that the entire globe can’t wait to celebrate your absence.

I understand that these people can’t have what they want – the world is better off for their losing power. But I feel for them anyway.

My indiscriminate and overwhelming empathy for everyone and everything doesn’t benefit me, it only makes me feel as if I have no layer of protection between me and the entirety of the world’s pain. It makes me feel crazy, absorbing the broken dreams of everyone I see and experiencing them as if they were mine.

I cried for Ron Paul today, because I don’t think anyone should ever have to feel alone and abandoned and unsupported. I don’t want anyone to feel that they’re misunderstood, or that they’ve done their best and shown the world their soul but the world said “meh.” I want everyone’s dreams to come true, even when they’re in conflict with mine. I want everyone to win. That’s why the world breaks my heart, and why I am still crying today even though last night’s election went the way I so desperately wanted.

I just wish we all could have won—and I hope that we did.

Odd Juxtaposition Here

Was just over reading some Politico.com, and read the following:

Huddle 24/7 – Politico.com
SCOOP: Politico’s John Bresnahan says HARRY REID is quietly planning to ease ROBERT BYRD out of the chairmanship of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“Reid has not yet discussed his plans with Byrd. But in a recent closed-door meeting with his advisers in Las Vegas and a private conversation with Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Reid has laid out a scenario that would have Inouye — the committee’s second-ranking Democrat — taking over Byrd’s chairmanship by the time the 111th Congress convenes in January.

Later in the same piece, the author discussed Ted Stevens, just convicted on seven felony counts of violating federal ethics laws. That’s where he’s done things wrong ‘n stuff. And lied about it. You know, unethically. Some of it to do with money, and how he let people give him lots of free shit and then made legislation that favored them. That’s bad. So then I read this:

Democrat DANIEL INOUYE — a Stevens friend who testified at his trial — said he hopes “the people of Alaska continue to believe in Ted Stevens, to remember his contributions and to look upon him as friend.”

So… we want a “friend” of Ted Stevens, someone who still thinks well of him and testified for him at his trial… (even though Steven’s is well know to be both the king of earmarks and a corrupt Intertube-ignorant-bastard) to chair the Senate Appropriations Committee? Where they… hand out the money? A position presumably ripe for corruption? Surely there must be some other/better choice here?

Pale In Flower

What happens when I mix art and politics. Larger size at Rendo, should you want to see that.

How the Right Wing Thinks (and why they’re wrong)

Bill Kristol is out on the Sunday talking head shows, trying to defend Sarah Palin, saying that all of her image problems are (of course!) not her fault. She doesn’t deserve the scorn that thinking people have for her hypocritical folksy bullshit, it’s all the fault of campaign staff. Of course. Via Huffington Post:

Kristol Rips McCain Camp, RNC For Handling Of Palin
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Kristol said Palin had been “ill served by some of the staff,” particularly in light of anonymous aides ripping her as a diva and/or rogue agent in recent news articles.

He chided the RNC for not taking the hit for the clothing that was purchased on Palin’s behalf.

“Why wasn’t a staffer out there saying, ‘you know what, I made the mistake’?” he asked. “Since when do the staffers go into hiding and let Governor Palin be the one who has to explain it? It’s a total disgrace the staff has ducked responsibility for this mistake, which was not her mistake. Whatever people’s criticisms of Governor Palin, no one thinks she lives high on the hog in Alaska, shopping at Neiman Marcus… I think the staff has ill-served her.”

So here’s the flaw in this typical right-wing thought process. The one where underlings have to take the heat for the mistakes of their superiors, while those superiors swan around claiming how much of a “decider” they are. One of two things is true in regard to this situation, both of them being equally damning of Sarah Palin and her ability to lead so much as a parade, much less the free world. Either:

1. Sarah Palin knew full well that this clothing expenditure was inappropriate, out of keeping with the hockey-mom character she’s been pitching, and possibly illegal. In this scenario she was well aware that this was not an OK thing to do, she just hoped it wouldn’t come out. If this scenario is true, then Bill Kristol seems to think that her staff should be falling on their swords, lying and covering up what Sarah Palin knew and didn’t know. Very typical of Republican (and corporate) thinking – save the boss’s face at all costs, no matter which disposable underling gets thrown under the bus. Why this scenario is damning for Sarah Palin: Do we really need one more cunning, ruthless leader who does whatever they want and then denies knowledge/responsibility for it when it comes to light, sacrificing those under them whenever it’s politically expedient?

2. Sarah Palin had no idea that this clothing expenditure was inappropriate, out of keeping with the hockey-mom character she’s been pitching, and possibly illegal. In this scenario Sarah Palin was the helpless puppet of a ruthless McCain campaign staff (the same staff who are currently running Alaska, by the sound of it.) She didn’t have any choice about what clothing was purchased for her and what was worn. She did not question from where the money came or how much was spent. She didn’t question the legality or the ethics of spending more money than most people see in 3-4 years on 2 months of clothing and hairstyling for herself and her family. Helpless against this overwhelming tide of powerful McCain staffers, she meekly donned whatever boxy jackets they held up, and never made a peep. She had NO IDEA they spent that much, but if she’d known she’d have said “Thanks but no thanks,” by golly! Why this scenario is damning for Sarah Palin: If this person can’t question or stand up to people who are trying to dress her, then what chance is there that she can stand up to her advisers once she’s in office? What chance that she can stand up to foreign leaders? If she didn’t question where these magical clothes came from, what else will she not question, not think about? If she was out of touch on campaign finance law and didn’t have the knowledge to identify this as inappropriate, what else doesn’t she know?

No matter which way Kristol tries to spin it, she looks bad. His saying that the staffers need to step up and take responsibility for this either confirms that Sarah Palin is another ruthless politician who will lie whenever necessary to protect herself, or that she’s a helpless puppet, buffeted along in an overwhelming tide of political machination over which she has no control.

Just what we don’t need in a leader, no matter how you spin it.

Maddow on Palin and Fruit Flies

I am so excited to have someone like Rachel Maddow on a national stage, saying the common sense things that need saying, in a way that’s pleasant to listen to. (I am looking at you, cable news screaming heads.)

Watch the video here. The MSNBC site’s embed code doesn’t work in WordPress, apparently.

The Official superBadGirl Sarah Palin Rant

Unabashed hypocrisy. Lying. Entitlement. Ethics scandals. Idiocy. Abuse of power. Abuse of budget. Tax dodging. Sarah Palin makes me sick. She also makes me angry. So many things about her are worthy of my contempt, but it’s hard to even talk about them without wanting to punch someone. I will try.

The abridged version, for those who don’t have this kind of time, is that the Repugs have tried to make this election about character rather than issues. Ominous “Who is Barack Obama?” BS everywhere. But when you look at Sarah Palin’s character, as evinced by her past actions, you rapidly get a picture of someone who will bend the rules for herself, her friends and family. She espouses convictions that she doesn’t seem to hold (or at least live by) and is not interested in the world outside her narrow view of it. She holds other women in contempt, she lies and distorts facts that can be easily disproven, and it seems like she might also be a greedy, aspirational, lying tax cheat too. So… if this race is about character – that makes it way easier, right?

Unabashed Hypocrisy & Lying: This week it was revealed that the RNC has paid for a $150,000 image upgrade for the backwoods Palins.

So, she’s one of the people, part of the “Real America” and her-n-Todd are struggling like everyone else. She only feels at home in a sea of Carharts and steel-toed boots. While she’s wearing $2,000 boots from Saks? Riiiiight. She now has the nerve to categorically deny the expenditure to the Chicago Tribune (after McCain already confirmed it with a terse “she needed clothes“). In the meantime, even her kids have gotten in on the action, as HuffPo has this slideshow of 2nd-grader Piper Palin wearing some pretty sassy outfits. In this one she’s even seen carrying a Louis Vuitton bag. Please baby Jesus, let that be her Mom’s bag? Please don’t say that ANYONE is boneheaded enough to buy a $1,000 purse for a 2nd grader? Although why SPalin or anyone in her down-home, one-of-the-people retinue would need a $1,000 bag I can also not explain. Are world leaders now judging their peers by their taste in handbags? Was she planning on carrying this in her next Katie Couric interview? In addition her makeup artist apparently charged the RNC $22k in the first two weeks of October, making her the highest-paid campaign staffer for that period. Because Sarah is so natural, and one of the folks, and just like us. I mean, I only paid my own makeup artist $2k in that time frame so that I could look my best at hockey games and dog sled races and whatnot, but still… oh wait, no I don’t have a makeup artist. Nevermind.

Question for Sarah: “Just how much lipstick does that pitbull need, anyhow?” Continue reading »

Larry David Sounds Like I Feel

Larry David: Waiting for Nov. 4th
I can’t subject other people to me in my current condition. I just don’t like what I’ve turned into — and frankly I wasn’t that crazy about me even before the turn. This election is having the same effect on me as marijuana. All of my worst qualities have been exacerbated. I’m paranoid, obsessive, nervous, and totally mental. It’s one long, intense, bad trip. I need to come down. Soon.

Except that I’ve never smoked marijuana, so I don’t know what I’d be like if I did.

The Most Important Thing No One’s Talking About

Biden Palin Vice Presidential Debate 2008 Transcript « After cancer, now what
IFILL: …Governor, you said in July that someone would have to explain to you exactly what it is the vice president does every day. You, senator, said you would not be vice president under any circumstances. Now maybe this was just what was going on at the time. But tell us now, looking forward, what it is you think the vice presidency is worth now.

PALIN: In my comment there, it was a lame attempt at a joke and yours was a lame attempt at a joke, too, I guess, because nobody got it. Of course we know what a vice president does.

BIDEN: They didn’t get yours or mine? Which one didn’t they get?

PALIN: No, no. Of course, we know what a vice president does. And that’s not only to preside over the Senate and will take that position very seriously also. I’m thankful the Constitution would allow a bit more authority given to the vice president if that vice president so chose to exert it in working with the Senate and making sure that we are supportive of the president’s policies and making sure too that our president understands what our strengths are. John McCain and I have had good conversations about where I would lead with his agenda. That is energy independence in America and reform of government over all, and then working with families of children with special needs. That’s near and dear to my heart also. In those arenas, John McCain has already tapped me and said, that’s where I want you, I want you to lead. I said, I can’t wait to get and there go to work with you.

IFILL: Senator?

BIDEN: Gwen, I hope we’ll get back to education because I don’t know any government program that John is supporting, not early education, more money for it. The reason No Child Left Behind was left behind, the money was left behind, we didn’t fund it. We can get back to that I assume.

With regard to the role of vice president, I had a long talk, as I’m sure the governor did with her principal, in my case with Barack. Let me tell you what Barack asked me to do. I have a history of getting things done in the United States Senate. John McCain would acknowledge that. My record shows that on controversial issues.

I would be the point person for the legislative initiatives in the United States Congress for our administration. I would also, when asked if I wanted a portfolio, my response was, no. But Barack Obama indicated to me he wanted me with him to help him govern. So every major decision he’ll be making, I’ll be sitting in the room to give my best advice. He’s president, not me, I’ll give my best advice.

And one of the things he said early on when he was choosing, he said he picked someone who had an independent judgment and wouldn’t be afraid to tell him if he disagreed. That is sort of my reputation, as you know. I look forward to working with Barack and playing a very constructive role in his presidency, bringing about the kind of change this country needs.

IFILL: Governor, you mentioned a moment ago the constitution might give the vice president more power than it has in the past. Do you believe as Vice President Cheney does, that the Executive Branch does not hold complete sway over the office of the vice presidency, that it it is also a member of the Legislative Branch?

PALIN: Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president’s agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we’ll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans that are needed for this nation. And it is my executive experience that is partly to be attributed to my pick as V.P. with McCain, not only as a governor, but earlier on as a mayor, as an oil and gas regulator, as a business owner. It is those years of experience on an executive level that will be put to good use in the White House also.

IFILL: Vice President Cheney’s interpretation of the vice presidency?

BIDEN: Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we’ve had probably in American history. The idea he doesn’t realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that’s the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that.

And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there’s a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit.

The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress. The idea he’s part of the Legislative Branch is a bizarre notion invented by Cheney to aggrandize the power of a unitary executive and look where it has gotten us. It has been very dangerous.

Obama in the Rain, Virginia 09/27/08

20080927_Fredricksberg_VA_Rally0890

Originally uploaded by Barack Obama

I hope that Obama is elected, obviously. And I hope that once he’s President, he doesn’t break my heart.

Right-Wing Radio

In listening to some asstarded right-wing radio jockey this morning, I was astonished at how wrong he was about everything. Not just the basics (He says Obama is bad and McBush/Palin are good) but also several other key indicators that let you know the guy is either hella-shady or just a total nutjob. Two of the biggest (surely endorsement-related) whoppers he fed his audience this morning:

• Charter Communications has some of the BEST CUSTOMER SERVICE in this damn country! These people sometimes have restraining orders taken out on them by customers, that’s how hard they’re serving them! (he seriously said that!)
• Saturn cars are the BEST! Japanese cars are ugly and boxy and stupid and dangerous! Who wants to drive a foreign boxy car, just to save some money on gas? (he seriously said that!) Plus, Europeans love the styling of the Saturn! (since when do neocon retards think European endorsement is a plus?)

This is all in addition to his sidekick saying something (I think about Obama being elected) would be “an apostrophe!” I can only assume he meant to say “catastrophe.”

Even if I bought the line of neocon BS he was spouting, just having a brain would lead me to question all his assertions after he claimed that Charter had good customer service. Don’t his listeners know he’s being paid for his endorsements? Don’t they have the power to reason “Hey, Charter has pretty much the worst service on the planet. If this guy says otherwise he’s retarded or lying for money. If he’d lie/be wrong about that, what else might he lie/be wrong about?”

Simple Deductive Reasoning.

What DO they teach them in schools these days?

Plus I also realized that Laura Ingraham uses Sugar’s “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” (written by gay punk icon Bob Mould) as a theme song. Offensive yet perversely hilarious.

I’ve Been Hoping Someone Would Post This

I really wanted someone to post this, the comparison of the educational histories of the presidential and vice presidential candidates. The accompanying analysis was good too, I would certainly assess this when thinking of hiring someone to work for me. Which is what our election system is all about, after all.

MOMocrats™: Educational Resumes of Obama, McCain, Biden & Palin
Obama:

• Occidental College (Los Angeles) – 2 years studying Politics and Public Policy.
• Columbia University (New York) – B.A. Political Science with a specialization in International Relations.
• Harvard Law School – Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude, Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Law Review.

Biden:

• University of Delaware – B.A. in History and a B.A. in Political Science.
• Syracuse University College of Law – Juris Doctor (J.D.)

McCain:

• United States Naval Academy – Class rank 894 of 899.

Palin:

• Hawaii Pacific University – 1 semester – Business Administration.
• North Idaho College – 2 semesters – General Studies.
• University of Idaho – 2 semesters – Journalism.
• Matanuska-Susitna College – 1 semester.
• University of Idaho – 3 semesters – B.A. in Journalism.