FCC Set to Release Ambitious Internet 10-Year Expansion Plan Tuesday
March 13, 2010
(ChattahBox) – The Federal Communications Commission is set to propose an ambitious a 10-year plan that would make high-speed Internet the top communication network in the country. The plan would displace telephone and broadcast television as the country’s premier communication systems and will reportedly include efforts to subsidize high-speed access for rural areas and an auction of broadcast spectrum for wireless devices. About one-third of Americans have no access to high-speed internet service because of isolation, cost or preference, the NY Times reported.
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GOP Rep. King: Healthcare Reform is ‘Nationalizing Your Body’
March 13, 2010
(ChattahBox)— Rep. Steve King, the far right-wing Republican Congressman from Iowa, and top ACORN conspirator-in-chief is known for his off the wall statements. He recently condoned domestic terrorist Joe Stack’s airplane attack against an IRS building, which left one innocent man dead, saying when “we abolish the IRS, it’s going to be a happy day for America.” And the many voices in King’s head were on full display during his speech at the recent CPAC convention, when he declared that the Obama administration was infested with enemies of the state, such as Trotskyites, Maoists, Stalinists, Leninists, Marxists and Che Guevareans. Now, the clownish lawmaker is teaming up with the teabaggers in their last ditch effort to kill healthcare reform, so Americans can have the “freedom” to die and go bankrupt from the lack of health insurance. King says that the healthcare reform bill will nationalize our bodies and leave us all at the mercy of the Che Guevareans and Trotskyites in the White House. Read more
Utah Republican Lawmaker’s Nude Hot Tub Confession
March 13, 2010
(ChattahBox)—This is getting to be a familiar story. Conservative “family values” politician spends his political career morally legislating and hypocritically preaching to the rest of us, while he engages in sexually scandalous behavior. This time, it’s Utah state Rep. and House Majority Leader Kevin Garn. At the end of a late-night legislative session, in which right-wing lawmakers ranted against global warming as tyranny and sought to ban affirmative action from Utah, Garn, 55, stood to address the chamber with his wife by his side, to confess that he spent time naked in a hot tub with a 15-year-old girl 25-years ago. Additionally, when he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2002, he paid the girl $150,000 to stay quiet about their hot tub escapade.
Although, Garn claims he did not have sex with the minor girl, when he was 28, at the time, she came forward recently to tell her story to local media outlets. Garn told his legislative colleagues that he wanted to disclose the incident on his own before the media reported it. What happened after his strange confession? The house members gave him a standing ovation and embraced him.
The woman involved, Cheryl Maher, said she needed to reveal the long ago incident, which happened while she was an employee of Garn’s, so that she could emotionally heal.
Garn apologized to his colleagues for his past behavior:
“Although we did not have any sexual contact, it was still clearly inappropriate — and it was my fault,” Garn said. “I apologize to you, my colleagues, for any shame this brings to the Utah State Legislature. I have tried my best to serve my constituents in a way that brings honor to them and makes this great state better than the way I found it. I hope to continue to do that.”
So far, his fellow lawmakers have not demanded that Garn resign. But that may change in the days ahead, considering that Senate Majority Leader Sheldon Killpack resigned from the Legislature in January, the day after he was arrested for drunk driving.
Source: Wonkette
Fox News Steve Doocy’s Healthcare Solution: Treat People ‘Like Dogs’
March 12, 2010
(ChattahBox)— Death panels, government takeover of healthcare, socialized medicine, healthcare reform is unconstitutional and will bankrupt the country, critics of the healthcare system will be placed on a no-treatment “list,” reform will kill granny, healthcare reform is tyranny and so on and so on. The right-wing’s outrageous fearmongering over reforming our nation’s broken healthcare system, has sunk to unbelievable depths of disingenuousness, depravity and outright stupidity. How could the public discourse over healthcare reform sink any lower? Well, it has. The dim-witted Steve Doocy of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, proclaimed that treating Americans like dogs is a “very brilliant” solution to the problems of our current healthcare system. Just like dogs, if the medical costs of sick loved ones becomes too high, simply make a cost-benefit analysis and put them down. Talk about death panels.
The simplicity of Doocy’s plan is indeed brilliant in a contemptible and derisive Kafkaesque way. Just get rid of health insurance altogether, and require sick people to pay for their care out of pocket. The reasoning goes; when people are “on the hook” financially there would be less waste in the system and unnecessary medical tests. The wealthy can pay for whatever treatments they desire and the poor—- well, it’s not a good idea to be poor in the harsh world of a compassionate conservative.
Doocy and his Fox & Friends pals were discussing an article in Newsweek by a veterinarian, entitled “Treat People Like Dogs,” in which the author Karen Oberthaler advocated treating our sick loved ones the same way as an ill golden retriever. “The fact that insurance generally covers all of this makes it more likely that doctors and patients pile on excessive and nonessential tests and procedures, she wrote.
She continued with the theme basing healthcare for humans, solely on the ability to pay for it. “No family wants to subject its already sick pet to uncomfortable tests or dump thousands of dollars into dead-end diagnostics. So why do we do that to our grandparents?”
Doocy thought it was a swell idea. The Idea to “treat [people] like dogs” “makes a lot of sense,” said Doocy:
DOOCY: “[T]here’s only 3 percent of Americans who have pet insurance and so we’re on the hook for the charges. So, if Americans were on the hook for all the tests and stuff, it would be a lot different.” Citing Oberthaler’s column, Doocy added: “if you’ve got a golden retriever…and you know that the dog has got cancer and it’s — you know, there really is no getting any better, would you order a bunch of tests that are going to be costly and right out of your pocket because chances are you don’t have the insurance…it also has to do with, you know, putting the dog through pain at the end of the road.”
Of course the reality is; even for people who are lucky enough to be covered by health insurance through employment or can afford to purchase a substandard private plan, there is no guarantee that medical costs will be paid for. If you get sick, the insurance company may find a way to rescind your policy. If you have a preexisting condition, you can’t obtain health insurance. And if you suffer from a catastrophic illness or injury, your insurance coverage will cap off at a lifetime limit. The result? The majority of personal bankruptcies are due to crushing medical costs.
Of course, hate talker and multi-billionaire Rush Limbaugh already beat Doocy and veterinarian Karen Oberthaler to the punch, in the let’s treat human suffering, in the same way we treat sick dogs argument. Last June, Limbaugh said on his radio show that the medical care system we provide to our pets is a good model for human care, because “there’s no insurance involved.”
“There’s no federal dog health care plan out there, and it’s working just fine,” because the “private market is providing dog owners every option they want for their dogs to be cared for” and that “it’s based on the owner’s ability to pay, there’s no insurance involved,” said Limbaugh.
The mind reels. Welcome to a compassionate conservative’s utopia and hell on earth for the rest of us.
Source: Media Matters
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Court Approves Torture Suit Against Donald Rumsfeld
March 12, 2010
US (ChattahBox) – In what is being called by some groups a monumental decision in the case of U.S. torture claims, a court has ruled that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld can be sued for authorizing torture.
Skater Johnny Weir ‘Not Family Friendly,’ Too Gay for Stars on Ice?
March 12, 2010
(ChattahBox)— Is he, or isn’t he, gay? That’s a question that many have wondered and even asked figure skater Johnny Weir outright. But the fashion-loving and highly-entertaining flamboyant champion figure skater, is not about to pigeonhole himself, as a “gay” skater. He rightly wants his artistry and performances to speak for themselves. In 2006, Weir said, “I don’t feel the need to express my sexual being because it’s not part of my sport and it’s private.” But apparently his flamboyance is considered inappropriate for the family audiences of the Stars on Ice Tour. According to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), Weir has not been invited to participate in the popular ice show, because he is “not family friendly.” Read more
Fugees Video Director Accused Of Raping, Impregnating Daughters For ‘Blood Purity’
March 12, 2010
US (ChattahBox) – Aswad Ayinde, also known as Charles McGill, has been arrested after evidence of years of abuse was unsurfaced, showing that he has sexually abused his children, forcing them to become pregnant.
Report finds Lehman Brothers accounting gimmicks to delay collapse could open door for lawsuits
March 12, 2010
(ChattahBox) – A report released Thursday gives new insight into how Lehman Brothers fell into peril at the start of the financial crisis, and the details reveal “materially misleading” accounting gimmicks were among the factors. The collapse of the 158-year-old investment bank is widely credited with helping trigger the financial meltdown in Sept. of 2008 when it declared for bankruptcy.
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Glenn Beck Denounces Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The USA” as Anti-American
March 12, 2010
(ChattahBox) – Last month Glenn Beck told thousands of adoring fans at the conservative CPAC conference that: “Progressivism is the cancer in America, and it is eating our Constitution.” Now Beck and his co-host Pat Gray have done some more of their mind bending critical analysis and decided that ‘The Boss’ Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In the U.S.A,” is anti-American” “propaganda” from which people must wake up. Beck was apparently shocked to discover that the song is about a bitter down-and-out Vietnam vet who has been kicked to the curb by the aforementioned USA, therefore critical of America and, thereby, unpatriotic! It probably is beside the point that Springsteen has shown some ‘progressive’ tendencies and supported President Obama during his election run, right?
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Sen. Reid’s Wife, Daughter Hurt in Car Crash
March 11, 2010
(ChattahBox)—Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) certainly has his plate full these days, with healthcare reform, Republican obstructionism and dismal reelection chances. An earlier today, things went from bad to worse, with the news that his wife and daughter were injured in a car accident. Reid’s wife, Landra, 69, and his daughter, Lana, 49, were rear-ended by a semi-truck on a Washington highway. Reid’s spokesman said that their injuries, although serious, are not life threatening and both women are conscious and can feel their extremities. Read more