Headlines - Tuesday May 15

An open letter to the people who hate Obama more than they love America

 

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There's nothing quite like being the victim of your own arrogance. The ugly $2 billion loss - which is probably only the beginning since the bank still owns those positions - sits squarely on the head of CEO Jamie Dimon. As we learned during the crisis of 2008 as well as this latest Wall Street failure is that we need much more transparency in the too-big-too-fail world.

Karma, anyone?

 

The big problem that we see once again from Wall Street is that they know Washington is a bunch of spineless jellyfish, who talk the talk but won't walk the walk. Wall Street knows that when these big banks get into trouble, the gutless will always be there to bail out the banks. Heads they win, tails they win. It's a fixed game and Wall Street knows it.Read the rest of this post...

 

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Charles Pierce: Mitt Romney's Religious Act of Political Accommodation

 

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Is there anything more despicable than someone who's a co-founder of a company that gets its start using a US university's servers, on the worldwide network started with a massive infusion of US tax dollars, who renounces his citizenship to avoid paying taxes on his billions in profit? The cherry on top is that this useless fuck moved to Singapore.

Unlike, say, the foreign-born, same-sex spouse of a US citizen, he'll have no problem jetting back and forth to his fortress on the top of Mt. Doom, so he's free to carry the passport of whatever cultural backwater will have him. But I hope that someone other than a dirty blogger will point out that he is the very model of a moocher and a looter.

Of course the right wing has decided he is their hero.

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Mister Willard: Hair Stylist to the Elite

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47 Times | That's how much election spending from groups that do not disclose their donors has risen since the 2006 midterm elections. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, "[t]he percentage of spending coming from groups that do not disclose their donors has risen from 1 percent to 47 percent since the 2006 midterm elections." Not coincidentally, the Supreme Court's election-buying decision in Citizens United also came down during this period.

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Duh: Because Of Abstinence Education, 60 Percent Of Young Adults Are Misinformed About Birth Control's Effectiveness

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Just when we were feeling that the 2012 election cycle seemed suspiciously light on mentally unstable long shot candidates, Mother Jones brings us a delightful little profile of Minnesota GOP congressional candidate Allen Quist, whom queen lunatic Michele Bachmann recently endorsed while noting that in her opinion, the former state representative is a man of "intellectual firepower." *RUBS HANDS.* Oh good, let's start with some of Quist's prior accomplishments: "During his time as a state representative, Quist…went undercover at an adult bookstore and a gay bathhouse in an effort to prove to a local newspaper reporter that they had become a 'haven for anal intercourse.'" Sounds promising! READ MORE »

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Thank you, GOP...

...for making us look like idiots in the eyes of the rest of the world.

As the United States Supreme Court considers whether requiring people to have health insurance is unconstitutional, Germans are bewildered as to why so many Americans appear to be against universal coverage.

They also question the continued portrayal of US President Barack Obama and his health reform backers as socialists and communists, noting that healthcare was introduced in Germany in the 19th century by Otto von Bismarck, who was definitely not a leftist, and is supported by conservative and pro-business politicians today.

[snip...]

But there are other reasons why Germans are confused about the US healthcare debate. The US comes across to not only Germans, but to many Europeans, as a religious country. God seems to be part of many US debates, especially ones surrounding the presidential campaign. In secular European politics, the Almighty is rarely if ever invoked.

Dear Germany,

Not everyone in the U.S. is a fanatical, idiotic, religious extremist and I apologize for any confusion. It is just that half of our country, the right-wing half, has become a screeching, oppositionist, moron zombie party brainwashed into dismissing logic and reason by a corporatist right-wing media.

While it is possible that they are beyond help, many of us here in America are still fighting to steer our country up the path to improvement and equality in hopes of catching up with rest of the civilized world.

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Not only did the Affordable Care Act require insurance companies to spend less money on marketing and overheard, but you could be the recipient of billions in rebates due to the regulation.

Better yet, the administration was clever enough to make sure it got credit for the rebates. Here's the line that will be included with every rebate check:

This letter is to inform you that you will receive a rebate of a portion of your health insurance premiums. This rebate is required by the Affordable Care Act — the health reform law.

That kicks all kinds of ass. It won't single-handedly change the perception of the law, but it'll help.