altara

Thursday, July 12, 2012

"...Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at the NAACP’s annual convention on Tuesday just after federal judges in Washington began hearing a lawsuit over Texas’s voter-identification law. “We will not allow political pretext to disenfranchise American citizens of their most precious right,” Holder declared before the crowd of 600 in Houston...."

This is good, but not enough. Holder needs to go beyond the states subject to the voting right laws. In Pennsylvania, for example, more than 10 % of African-Americans have no photo ID and are effectively disenfranchised. The ACLU,the NAACP, and others are mounting lawsuits in a number of states, but the clout and resources of the Federal government are needed. To make the November election honest, we need to get the proof, from e-mails, statements, etc, that this is a national Republican conspiracy to disenfranchise groups that tend to support Democratic candidates.

House Republicans are on a mission to repeal President Obama’s health-care overhaul, and they’re latching onto the wording of the Supreme Court’s recent decision two weeks ago.,..... this time making the argument that by doing so, they’d be saving about 20 million Americans from paying an unnecessary tax. “This is a major tax with major implications. Democrats have argued that the individual mandate was necessary to improve the nation’s health,” said House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp during Tuesday’s debate. “So what’s next? Will they require you to purchase low-fat or low-salt foods or pay a tax because they think it’s good for you?"

"20 million Americans"? No, it's only those who can afford health insurance and refuse to do so. In Massachusetts, it's only 1%.  The food analogy is fun but off the mark, If you fail to eat your peas, no one else suffer; but those who fail to buy insurance may well burden our hospitals or other parts of our health care system.

Monday, July 09, 2012

Mayan Calendar: World Will Not End In December 2012, Expert Says 

Darn, and I've almost completed my bucket list.