Some interesting facts

Did you know that Kraft Mac & Cheese boxed "dinner" has a freshness date? This is one of the most inert forms of matter in the universe (dried pasta and dried cheesy powder) and you have to eat it in a year or two. I only know this because I found some boxes up in the top of my cupboard that had been there for five or so years, and they were years past their date.

Republicans Show Signs of Collapse at Party Level

After the last election, the GOP touted their loss in New York district 23 as a "victory," even though their attempt to Talibanize the party (they withdrew party support at the last minute for the Republican who won the primary, purportedly because she exhibited "liberal" characteristics) succeeded only in turning the vote Democratic in a district that had been solidly Republican since the time of Teddy Roosevelt.

Stupak amendment plants poison pill in House Healthcare Bill

A seemingly innocuous last-minute amendment to the House Health Care Reform bill has added a poison pill to an already horribly flawed bill. For shame! The amendment seems to just reiterate the current ban on federal funding for abortion, and hence looks benign and probably redundant. But note that it enjoins any payment for abortion services by any company which receives federal funds, and the health care reform bill gives funds to all health insurance companies in the form of subsidies for the poor and uninsured. That means that today your Aetna or Blue-Cross policy will pay for an early term elective abortion, but after the law goes into effect it will not! To heck with Roe v Wade and those unreliable Supreme Court justices-- this law just takes a quick detour around them, and takes away a right that's been recognized for almost forty years.

Folks, this is an outrage, and it sets back the clock on choice. This is misogynist and anti-poor, because it affects only women, and it affects only those who can't pay up-front, in cash, for abortion services, even if they have otherwise excellent health coverage which pays for those services today!

The House healthcare reform bill-- already a tortured mess of waffling, accommodating wildly diverse special interests, and an unprecedented jumbo platter of glistening roast pork for the current for-profit health insurers-- has, by attaching this amendment, stopped being a set of acceptable half measures toward a positive goal and has instead become a worse state of affairs than we already have. I intend to call each of my representatives in Washington and let them know this bill should be put out of its misery immediately and a new bill should be brought forward-- one that is fair and effective, doesn't just hand the health insurance industry hundreds of billions of dollars in new business, and makes the status quo worse. Americans fought long and hard for abortion choice. Reinstating the bad old days by this back door trick must not be allowed. Hand the bill back to Bart Stupak, or even better shove it up his backside.

Maine legislators dither while Augusta burns

The state of Maine has a current year budget deficit of several hundred million dollars and that's expected to get much worse in the next year or two. The state is in the middle of a deep recession, there's rampant unemployment, there's a healthcare crisis, a real estate crisis, a foreclosure crisis, and the monopoly that supplies land line phone service in the state is in Chapter 11. Maine legislators, entrusted to work on these and other compelling problems, have jumped into the breech by passing a sweeping law against allowing children to view adults consuming alcohol. In fact it's so sweeping, the new law will have to be amended because, well, ummm, yes, I guess we all agree it's probably alright for the poor helpless children to see wine tastings in supermarkets after all.

A special shout-out, and nomination for the Nero award for "cluelessness that verges on criminal negligence" goes to Rep. David Webster of Freeport who drafted the original law, and who is now scrambling to amend the law so it will allow said wine-tastings. I am reminded of the legislation, passed just last year in Maine, which protects children under 16 from the nefarious effects of their parents smoking in a car. If you're transporting drugs or weapons or illegal aliens or under age sex slaves in your car you're protected by due process, but if you smoke with kids in the car, or don't fasten your seat belt, forget the search warrants! Please could someone bring a clue-stick to Augusta to try and get our representatives to remember why they're there in the first place? This is terribly depressing.

Palin and Limbaugh attempt to Talibanize GOP, defeat ensues

Sarah P's Facebook page and Rush's radio clown show have become the new political platforms for the Talibanization of the GOP. The Republican candidate in the NY 23rd district wasn't "conservative" enough, so last week they ousted her at the last minute and anointed the hapless spoiler from the independent Conservative party as the "true" Republican candidate. The Republican (who was accused of being pro-choice and pro-gay and not wearing a burka) dropped out when she lost her financial base, and endorsed the Democrat.

Well, predictably with these two political masterminds working on it, the previously reliable conservative voters in upstate NY (they've voted GOP since the 1920's) rejected the whole bleating lot of them and voted Democrat, giving the Dems another House seat. With a few more attempts to "purify" and "cleanse" the GOP of wafflers, liberal-leaners, baby murderers, and gay lovers, Palin and Limbaugh (and Beck and Cheney and the tea baggers and the "you lie" tea partiers) will have cleansed the nation of any viable conservative voice in government for the forseeable future. Do your best Sarah and Rush!