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.

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.

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.

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 »

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.

Media Ignores Massive Voter Purges by Republicans

While the media focuses on the antics of McCain’s chosen VP battleground states are purging their voter rolls.

In Colorado, one fifth of all voter registrations were dropped.

Florida is refusing to accept 85,000 new registrants — overwhelmingly blacks.

Ohio & Nevada are scrubbing tens of 1000s of voters who lost their homes.

read more | digg story

They Don’t Get it in the Biggest Way

Was watching The Daily Show last night, and Newt Gingrich was on. At the end of his clip (below) he says something that so perfectly encapsulates the conservative/Republican viewpoint, I had to point it out.

The point he tries to make with Jon is that there’s a difference between Palin’s “policy” and her child. There’s a difference between “policy debates” and what goes on in families. And what I don’t get how THEY don’t get, is that the policy they make AFFECTS REAL FAMILIES. JUST AS REAL AS YOUR FAMILY. Duh.

You can’t separate your policy and the laws you’d enact from what you want for your own family. This world is made up of other people’s families. You can’t say “This is my public viewpoint, but at my kitchen table it’s all different.”

Well, I guess you CAN say that, but that’s what makes you a dipshitted conservative “nothing applies to me” asshat. Isn’t that really the conservative’s disease? That mindset that rules don’t apply to them? So they can cheat and lie and steal and fuck and drink and do drugs and fuck some more and start wars and talk bad about people and create havoc and Jeebus forgives them and it’s all OK once they go to rehab but there oughta be a law, by golly, to keep anyone else from doing those things?

*head shake*

*sigh*

This isn’t perfectly transcribed, there’s a reason I am not a transcriptionist by trade, I suppose. But the video is below (this convo starts around the 4:30 mark)

Jon: So what she’s in essence saying is “Respect my family’s ability to make this decision, and elect me so that I can keep your family from having the same opportunity.”
Newt: No. That’s not true
John: That strikes me as hypocrisy.
Newt: No. What she’s saying is… you and she can have a policy debate about whether or not Obama’s position defending infanticide by abortion doctors was appropriate in the Illinois legislature…
Jon: No this isn’t about Obama – I’m going by her words, no abortion even in the case of rape
Newt:… That’s right. You can say Obama’s position was one extreme, and her position may be the other extreme. That’s a policy debate. But the minute you mention her child…
Jon: But when it down to her family she says “respect her decision”
Newt: No she says respect the privacy of the family
Jon: “It was Bristol’s decision.” That was their press release.
Newt: She said respect the privacy of her daughter which is very different than…
Jon: She says respect Bristol’s decision. That’s another word for choice.
Newt: And she could make the choice, because I assume they have choice there.

Making the Case for Abstinence-Only Sex Education – 236

Exactly, exactly, exact-o-fucking-lutely.

Making the Case for Abstinence-Only Sex Education – 236 – The Room
LEVI: What are you fuckin’ talkin’ about? I made you. You’re set. Instead of being branded a pinhead by Bill O’Reilly and having conservatives blame your parents for this shit, you’re, like, now the poster child for the right-to-life movement. As though abortion had anything to do with our fuckin’ a lot without a condom. Think about it–you’re getting rewarded for your “morals” by puttin’ out at 17! Most kids our age would get killed for this shit, and I’m going to be on national TV instead. This is greatest bait-and-switch in history. I’m a fuckin’ genius.

Someone Told the St. Paul Police There Was a Zombie Outbreak – 236 – The Room

Pretty much the best post I’ve read in a week or two.

Someone Told the St. Paul Police There Was a Zombie Outbreak – 236 – The Room
Oh, man. The St. Paul Police Department’s face must be red after they confused RNC protesters with a ravenous zombie hoard to be taken down at any cost.

Why else would they be wearing gas masks and more body armor than the dude from Halo? As I marched with other protesters and I saw officers on balconies and vans pointing automatic weapons at us, I realized there had been a really big mix-up.

It’s easy to understand: A large group of people moving at a slow pace repeating phrases they couldn’t understand. Clearly zombies.

Viewing the apocalypse in progress, the police officers decided to valiantly protect their caches of guns, booze, and women by attacking the hungry lost souls. We tried to tell them that we were peacefully marching and not the undead.

But they couldn’t hear us over the sound of how ready they were to kick our asses.

…

Read the rest at link above.

Is Palin the New Harriet Miers?

It’s always been my more-than-sneaking suspicion that the entire Harriet Miers fiasco was deliberate. Bush wanted to nominate a conservative white man, but he was replacing a woman and would get flack for not nominating a woman to the position. So what to do? Take a page of the sleazy PavRovian playbook and nominate a woman who is in no way qualified for the position. That way, when everyone howls that’s she’s an inappropriate pick, Bushie can nominate a conservative white guy (Alito) like he wanted all along and then have the audacity to claim that it’s OUR fault. What? He WANTED to nominate a woman! But WE wouldn’t accept her! Sheesh, can’t we ever be satisfied?

This Palin fiasco is shaping up to be the exact same thing. If she withdraws or is withdrawn from the ticket, McSame can glibly replace her with some old white croney of his, smug with the claim that he WANTED to have a woman on his ticket, but we wouldn’t accept her! The whole nation isn’t ready for a woman VP! Sounds so familiar.

The key being, of course, that he’d get no opposition to a qualified female, which he well knows.

Scumbags.

Oh Jesus Christ Almighty
Do I feel all right?
No, not slightly

- Lily Allen – Everything’s Just Wonderful

Here’s more of that “ER Insurance”

Five mistakes that will land you in medical debt – CNN.com
It took the Trim family of Arlington, Texas, three hours to go $15,000 into debt. One evening last spring, Alex Trim was knocked unconscious when a car hit his bike and he slammed into the windshield. Three hours, many stitches and seven CT scans later, Alex was discharged in pretty good shape.

About a month later, the bill arrived in the mail. “I didn’t have a clue you could go into $15,000 debt in one night,” said Alex’s father, Callvin Trim. “When I saw that bill, I was just kind of numb.”

…

A report out last month from the Commonwealth Fund found that 28 percent of the population said they were paying off medical debt in 2007, up from 21 percent in 2005.

“Two-thirds of the people who go into medical debt have insurance,” said Mark Rukavina, executive director of the Access Project. “When medical debt hits, it hits very quickly. It’s a jolt, and it’s generally not very predictable.”

“These are all honest, hardworking people,” added Jessie Maurer, a medical billing advocate in West Des Moines, Iowa, who helped the Trims. “This could happen to just about anybody.”

McCain Advisor says that there are no uninsured people in America

This has got to be one of the most jackassy things that I ever read. This dipshit who advises McCain on health care policy, claims that there are no uninsured, because people can go to the emergency room.

Texas still leads nation in rate of uninsured residents
But the numbers are misleading, said John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a right-leaning Dallas-based think tank. Mr. Goodman, who helped craft Sen. John McCain’s health care policy, said anyone with access to an emergency room effectively has insurance, albeit the government acts as the payer of last resort. (Hospital emergency rooms by law cannot turn away a patient in need of immediate care.)

“So I have a solution. And it will cost not one thin dime,” Mr. Goodman said. “The next president of the United States should sign an executive order requiring the Census Bureau to cease and desist from describing any American – even illegal aliens – as uninsured. Instead, the bureau should categorize people according to the likely source of payment should they need care.

“So, there you have it. Voila! Problem solved.”

HELLO FROM EARTH! Lack of access to care and lack of insurance – not the same thing. Yes, if you’ve been shot someone must take care of you. But that’s not the same as being insured. Going to the ER with “holy fuck my appendix just burst” is NOTHING LIKE going to the doctor’s office because you’re having stomach pains. See the difference? It’s called preventive care, and routine health screening. It’s the difference between routine treatment and possibly dying because no doctor would see your uninsured ass until something went desperately, unfixably wrong.

He also makes the  assumption that all uninsured persons are deadbeats who will skip out on their health care bills. Not true. Ever heard of the honest working poor? Sure, if you’re too broke to pay, despite your best intentions, you can stiff the hospital and the gov’t (and the rest of us who DO pay premiums) will have to foot your bill, but it will also ruin your credit.

If you are low-income enough to not have insurance and you do your best to pay after going to the ER, you will probably go bankrupt, since any uninsured ER visit is sure to cost upwards of $5,000.I think my 3-hour visit for my broken foot (for which I wasn’t even admitted) cost upwards of $8,000.

God, what a total fucktard. I mean a TOTAL fucktwatted assfaced baboon. What a clueless dipshit motherfuck. Idiot.

McCain listens to this guy? He had a hand in crafting McCain’s health care policy? WHAT THE FUCK?

I think “right-leaning” is a misnomer for this guy and his group. I think “leaning so far right that they’ve fallen and can’t get up” might describe them better. I would like to put him on the “ER Only” insurance plan for a year, and see what he thinks of it then.

Sheezus.