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?.

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.

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

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.

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.

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?

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

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.

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

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?”

Lying & Entitlement: The Palin family has done quite a bit of traveling on Alaska’s dime. Sarah has lugged her daughters along to events they were not invited to attend, she’s had them staying with her at $700+ luxury suites, she’s used Alaska money to cart them to some kind of dog sled race their dad was in, then went back to edit the expense reports to claim they were on “official state business.” The people throwing these events say the girls had no official role, and they were shocked in some cases to see them show up. This is BEFORE SPalin was tapped for the VP. This gaming of the system, this abuse of taxpayer monies, this sickening attitude of entitlement for herself and her family, this all has been her standard operating procedure for years, apparently.

She also charged the state “per diem” fees for staying at her own house, when she had an official residence as Governor. Now, maybe my counting skills are off, but that seems to me that in a time when many Americans are facing foreclosure and struggling to maintain roofs over their heads, she had not one but TWO houses available to her, and she chose to stay at the one which would allow her to charge taxpayers for its upkeep. You know, I don’t think most Americans have housing provided to them by their employer, and if they do I don’t think they have the option of rejecting that housing and then charging their employer to stay in their own home. I mean, I may just be some kind of elite thinking person, but I don’t recall many of my own friends in similar situations.

So basically Sarah Palin thinks that her position entitles her and her family to a shedload of freebies and perks on our dime.

Question for Sarah: “Do you think the American taxpayers should continue to pay for your kids’ travel costs if you and McCain are ‘so privileged as to serve’? If so, don’t you think it would be more fiscally conservative of us to choose a candidate who has fewer kids that we the taxpayers are apparently going to have to support?”

Idiocy: Sarah Palin is not an intellectually curious person. In a world somewhat inured to idiotic statements from US leaders (after 12 total years of Bushisms) she still manages to come across as uneducated, and proud of it. This arrogant, prideful ignorance is such a Bushie hallmark that I can hardly believe they think it will play well, but she still has the attitude that people who know stuff are “elite” and think they’re better than other people. (In her Brian Williams interview this week that’s how she defines the elite – as people who think they’re better than other people. A nice follow-up question to that would have been “Do you think you’re better than Senator Obama?” Force that a-hole to say something nice about the man, or else look as douchebaggy as she really is.) She’s ignorant of “small” things, like thinking that New Hampshire is in the northwest of the country, not being able to name any news source she actually follows, not being able to name a single Supreme Court case, not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is, not knowing that most VP candidates in recent history have had extensive foreign policy experience, and she’s ignorant of major things too, like what the role of the vice president actually is, and how a bill becomes a law. There’s a cartoon for that, for Christ’s sake. Note that the VP does not feature in the cartoon. She’s also incapable of forming coherent sentences on almost any topic, and has a strange word-salad manner of interrupting herself so often as she speaks.

Question for Sarah: “What is it about Obama’s 12 years as a professor of constitutional law plus his time in state and federal government that makes him less knowledgeable and less prepared to lead the country than you?”

More Hypocrisy and Abuse of Power: Seriously, what’s going on with her and the tax situation? There’s some shadiness there. (Latest = the $150k of clothing you just know she’s not going to pay taxes on. Probably she left the tags on and will be returning it, after. You know, Wasilla-style.) And what’s with her husband Todd being in that Alaska secessionist party? Isn’t that kinda treason-esque? And even if it isn’t (my belief is that people can espouse whatever beliefs they want as long as they keep their mitts off my rights) it still should prevent her from throwing stones at Obama’s supposed “imperfect” view of America. Hey, your husband apparently doesn’t think America’s all that great either, Sarah. Maybe you and he should have a chat? And as a reformer who takes on special interests, and fiscal conservative who slashes budgets, why do you hire nothing but unqualified cronies for plum jobs, and why did you leave the city of Wasilla in $20 million of long-term debt?

Ethics scandals: She let her husband and her staff use undue pressure on state employees to try to get them to fire someone for personal reasons. When he wouldn’t, she fired him. Technically that’s legal, she can hire and fire who she wants. But letting her husband and staff exert influence in her name to get someone fired over a personal grudge was unethical, it was found to be unethical, and she’s now lying about it.

Question for Sarah: “Will you please read aloud the section of the report that I have highlighted?

Hypocrisy, again (noticing a theme?): She supports abstinence-only sex education, and is on a big high horse about the moral superiority of her small-town values, but has a pregnant teenage daughter, and was also apparently pregnant when she married, herself. (Track was born 8 months after she and Todd eloped.) Irrespective of her own experience, she slashed the budget for a teen pregnancy center in Alaska. Gee thanks. You have to have the kid, but no resources for you!

She would love abortion to be illegal in all cases, ostensibly even in cases like  those described by Bill Napoli, conservative religious South Dakota fucktard:

BILL NAPOLI: A real-life description to me would be a rape victim, brutally raped, savaged. The girl was a virgin. She was religious. She planned on saving her virginity until she was married. She was brutalized and raped, sodomized as bad as you can possibly make it, and is impregnated. I mean, that girl could be so messed up, physically and psychologically, that carrying that child could very well threaten her life.

She tried to dodge questions about her views on abortion by saying that she wouldn’t have any influence on policy decision in that area, then turned around to claim that the VP runs the Senate and gets in there and makes good legislation.

She says she will be a champion of families with special-needs children. She claims to be an expert on special-needs families, but has had a Down Syndrome child for only 5 months. Seriously, WTF does she know?

Bashing those who don’t agree with her as anti-American or unpatriotic: Over and over she’s talked about how her followers are the real Americans, the real patriots. Apparently real part of America is only the small towns, and anyone who doesn’t feel like her does not count as an American. Seriously. That’s the rhetoric she’s spouting. These NYC folks who just don’t get it, they’re not real America. Well, as Jon Stewart said the other night  – Osama Bin Laden is going to be PISSED that he bombed the wrong America!

Seriously though, The Daily Show showed just a seconds-long clip of NYC firefighters in the aftermath of 9/11 and I cried for half an hour. The idea that this hateful, horrible woman could stand on a dais and claim that some people in this country are less American than others – it’s sickening. How dare she say such a thing? How dare she imply that her views are the only views, and the rest of us don’t count? Our sacrifices, our struggles, the things we go through every day do not count, because we’re not like her, and don’t like her? Bullshit. How dare she question the way I feel about this country? Apparently she can’t seem to grasp that America is a country of people with vastly divergent views, beliefs and ways of being. We were founded in a way which would incorporate all those views. There’s no “right” way to be an American, there’s no correct way to be patriotic. She needs to change her thinking and realize that America is made up of a lot of people who share none of her values. It’s her and her party’s inability to grasp that concept that makes them such epic failures. I would never accuse her of being un-American for her views, but she would say that I am the “wrong” kind of American for mine.

Question for Sarah: “Which of your opponent’s views do you think Jesus would share?” And BTW, can someone please fill me in on the longstanding question “How many preemptive wars would Jesus start?”

So – is she criminally stupid, or criminally greedy and corrupt? Or all three? I don’t know, and I don’t care. I just want her to go away already.