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Red States Remain Adamantly Opposed to Medicaid Expansion

by shaz066ow7 Posted on December 20, 2013

Mother Jones

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A lot of people, myself included, have hoped that pressure from health care groups will eventually persuade even deep red states to enact the Medicaid expansion that’s part of Obamacare. After all, the expansion is almost entirely paid for by the federal government, and the loss of Medicaid money hurts doctors and hospitals in the affected states.

Today, Dylan Scott reports that the key word here is “eventually.” For now, anyway, red-state politicians are adamant about never, ever expanding Medicaid by even a dime:

Top officials for powerful trade organizations in three of the largest states not expanding Medicaid under Obamacare told TPM that they have effectively given up that fight until political conditions change, setting their sights on 2015 at the earliest.

“What I’m really struggling with is — I don’t even know how to talk about expanding Medicaid without just pissing Republicans the hell off and making them think I’m part of the problem,” said a top official for one of the industry groups, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk frankly about the political reality in their state and avoid upsetting the chances of expansion in the long term.

….These organizations approached Medicaid expansion as a typical legislative issue last year — the kind where the promise of billions in federal dollars and opportunity to insure thousands of your constituents would trump ideological purity….”We found that this issue is much bigger than that. The influences are much stronger than a state-derived influence in terms of keeping states in the ‘No’ column,” a trade group official in a third state said. “We can’t even call it Medicaid expansion here. That’s a politically incorrect way of saying it.”

Ideological purity continues to trump the prospect of helping the poor, even when that help is all but free. Ladies and gentlemen, this is your modern Republican Party.

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Red States Remain Adamantly Opposed to Medicaid Expansion

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Quote of the Day: In Shocking Development, Media Org Gets Suckered By Darrell Issa Once Again

by JohnetteMcKinla Posted on December 20, 2013

Mother Jones

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From ABC News:

This post has been updated to include an expanded response from CMS and a statement from the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee.

OK, I admit that doesn’t seem like much of a quote. But Steve Benen provides the backstory: ABC ran a story today about “two high findings of risk” in the Obamacare website. This came via a leak from Darrell Issa, who is practically infamous for leaking partial transcripts of hearings that are wildly misleading. But ABC ran with it anyway. So here’s what CMS said when they got a chance to respond:

In one case, what was initially flagged as a high finding was proven to be false,” the agency said in a statement. “In the other case, we identified a piece of software code that needed to be fixed and that fix is now in place. Since that time, the feature has been fully mitigated and verified by an independent security assessment, per standard practice.”

The administration maintains that no components of the website were allowed to go live after Oct. 1 with “open unresolved high findings.”

….The ranking Democrat on the committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., has accused Issa of a “reckless pattern of leaking partial and misleading information” about the website operations.

“The very same witness interviewed by the Committee also said there have been absolutely no security breaches of the website and that she is satisfied with the current security testing,” Cummings said in a statement responding to the release of Fryer’s testimony. “This effort to leak cherry-picked information is part of a deliberate campaign to scare the American people and deny them the quality affordable health insurance to which they are entitled under the law.”

Naturally, Cummings’ statement was relegated to the very last paragraph of the piece. But that’s basically the whole story. One bug turned out to be trivial and the other has been fixed and never caused any problems. This is exactly what’s supposed to happen with bugs. For all practical purposes, the update undermines the entire story.

When will reporters learn not to trust Issa? Judging by current practice, never.

UPDATE: It turns out this is even worse than I thought. Michael Hiltzik has the full story here.

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Quote of the Day: In Shocking Development, Media Org Gets Suckered By Darrell Issa Once Again

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Obamacare Enrollments Are Starting to Surge

by CarmonRoy Posted on December 19, 2013

Mother Jones

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Over the past 24 hours, I have managed to say not a single word about either Duck Dynasty or Pajama Boy. So what do I get for my reward? This:

HORSEBACK GUESSTIMATE WARNING: Unless it’s hidden away somewhere, California hasn’t released weekly enrollment numbers. But they’ve released numbers for October, and for the first two weeks of November, and then for October+November. Then today they released numbers for the first three days of this week: 13K on Monday, 19K on Tuesday, and 20K on Wednesday. If you put that all together and then take a reasonable swag at filling in the gaps, you get the chart above. It’s not official or anything, but it’s probably not too far off.

And what it shows is that with deadlines finally looming, all those people who have been shopping for the past month or two are finally enrolling at a furious pace. Other states are reporting a similar surge. Obamacare still has a long way to go, but things are definitely starting to perk up.

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Obamacare Enrollments Are Starting to Surge

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Pussy Riot and Arctic 30 "Hooligans" to be Released from Russian Prison

by qdyedut Posted on December 19, 2013

Mother Jones

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The two jailed members of the punk band Pussy Riot are set to be released from prison following an amnesty bill passed by the Russian parliament last night. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were convicted of “hooliganism” and sentenced to two years in prison after they staged a protest against Putin and the Russian Orthodox church last year.

Also likely to be released are the members of the “Arctic 30,” a group of Greenpeace activists who staged a protest against drilling in the Arctic by boarding a Russian oil rig in September. The activists have spent two months in jail under charges of hooliganism. Peter Wilcox, the American captain of the Greenpeace ship that was raided by Russian authorities, says that while he’s happy to be going home, “I should never have been charged and jailed in the first place.”

The passage of the amnesty bill comes amid growing scrutiny of the Putin administration’s crack-down on gay rights. In June, Putin signed into law a bill banning the “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations to minors.” President Obama announced Tuesday that he and Michelle Obama will not be attended the 2014 Winter Olympics, which will be held in Russia this February. Instead, Obama will be sending delegates: Tennis champion Billie Jean King and ice hockey medalist Caitlin Cahow, both of whom are openly gay.

Watch the “punk prayer” that got the Pussy Riot members locked in prison:

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Pussy Riot and Arctic 30 "Hooligans" to be Released from Russian Prison

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Pet Peeve Watch: I. Am. Not. A. Guest.

by RosalineHartman Posted on December 19, 2013

Mother Jones

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Yet another store has been hacked, losing data on millions of credit and debit cards. This time the victim was Target, but it could have been anyone. Once again, corporate America has demonstrated that it couldn’t care less about customer security and privacy.

But you already knew that. Instead, I’m curious whether I’m alone in hating, hating, hating this particular euphemism from Target’s CEO:

Target’s first priority is preserving the trust of our guests and we have moved swiftly to address this issue, so guests can shop with confidence. We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

I. Am. Not. A. Guest. A guest is someone I invite into my home and ply with free food and drink. Because, you know, they’re my guest. Target doesn’t do that. They sell me stuff. I pay for it. (Probably with cash from now on.) I can complain about poor service. I can return stuff I don’t like. I can choose what I want to buy and what I don’t. That makes me a customer. Not. A. Guest.

So knock it off.

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Pet Peeve Watch: I. Am. Not. A. Guest.

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WATCH: This Jesus Doll Has Opinions About the War on Christmas Fiore Cartoon

by LRTJoeldnli Posted on December 19, 2013

Mother Jones

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Mark Fiore is a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and animator whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Examiner, and dozens of other publications. He is an active member of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, and has a website featuring his work.

Source:

WATCH: This Jesus Doll Has Opinions About the War on Christmas Fiore Cartoon

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The Big Sur Fire is Just The Latest Sign of Longer Fire Seasons

by BetteSupple Posted on December 18, 2013

Mother Jones

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The fire currently burning in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, Calif., isn’t particularly large: As of the latest Forest Service report, it has burned 769 acres and is 20 percent contained.

Nor is it particularly damaging: So far, 22 buildings or structures have been destroyed by the fire. (One was the fire chief’s home.) Compare that with the 2003 Cedar Fire in San Diego county, which destroyed 2,820 structures.

However, it is markedly unseasonal: The California wildfire season was pronounced over on October 31, 2013. But of course, it isn’t over.

In general, western wildfire seasons are getting longer. Thomas Tidwell, chief of the US Forest Service, said so directly in recent congressional testimony, noting that “the length of the fire season has increased by over two months since the 1970s.”

And of course, it doesn’t help that the Big Sur area is currently experiencing drought conditions.

It is also worth pointing out that for the state of California, seven of its 10 largest fires have occurred since the year 2000, including this year’s Rim Fire, the third largest in state history.

Here’s a helpful infographic from the Union of Concerned Scientists, showing just how much fire seasons are lengthening:

Union of Concerned Scientists

And here’s a Climate Desk video on how global warming is making wildfires worse:

Source:

The Big Sur Fire is Just The Latest Sign of Longer Fire Seasons

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The 9 Most Important Recommendations From the President’s NSA Surveillance Panel

by GenevieveKunkel Posted on December 18, 2013

Mother Jones

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The report of the president’s NSA review panel is out. It has a grand total of 46 recommendations. Here are the most interesting ones:

  1. Phone records should be stored privately, not by the government. If the NSA needs phone records, it should get a warrant for them. Like a subpoena, the warrant should be “reasonable in focus, scope, and breadth.”
  2. More broadly: “As a general rule and without senior policy review, the government should not be permitted to collect and store mass, undigested, non-public personal information about US persons for the purpose of enabling future queries and data-mining for foreign intelligence purposes.”
  3. The FBI should no longer be allowed to issue National Security Records on its own. NSLs should be issued only if a warrant is approved. Nondisclosure orders should be more restricted; should last no more than 180 days; and should not prevent the target of the NSL from challenging its legality in court.
  4. Generally speaking, companies that are ordered to produce information should be allowed to “disclose on a periodic basis general information about the number of such orders they have received, the number they have complied with, the general categories of information they have produced, and the number of users whose information they have produced in each category.”
  5. Surveillance of non-US persons “must be directed exclusively at protecting national security interests….and must not be directed at illicit or illegitimate ends, such as the theft of trade secrets or obtaining commercial gain for domestic industries.”
  6. If a US person is inadvertently surveilled, that information cannot be used as evidence in any court proceeding.
  7. The NSA should be headed by a civilian. Leadership of the NSA should be separated from leadership of the military’s Cyber Command.
  8. “Congress should create the position of Public Interest Advocate to represent the interests of privacy and civil liberties before the FISC.” In addition, more FISC decisions should be declassified.
  9. The government should commit itself to stop trying to undermine public encryption standards.

These are useful recommendations, especially 1, 2, 3, 6, and 8. Recommendation 7 is already a dead letter, since President Obama has said he plans to keep dual-hatted leadership for the NSA and Cyber Command.

How much of this will survive the president and Congress? I’d like to say I’m optimistic, but I’m not, really. These recommendations are useful but modest, and I suspect that Congress will whittle them down even more. Stay tuned.

Source:

The 9 Most Important Recommendations From the President’s NSA Surveillance Panel

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If You Want Credit For an Improving Economy, You Have to Seize It

by GenevaN41gfx Posted on December 18, 2013

Mother Jones

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Paul Krugman channels Simon Wren-Lewis today to complain about the economic triumphalism of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who has been crowing that his austerity policies are finally paying off. In reality, both men say, Cameron implemented austerity policies in 2010 and 2011, but then eased up. And now that he’s eased up, the economy is starting to improve. Austerity had nothing to do with it.

I want to use this as a springboard to make two random-but-connected points:

Politically, message consistency is key. Ronald Reagan never varied from his insistence that tax cuts would supercharge the economy, so when the economy finally did pick up in 1983, tax cuts got the credit even though they almost certainly played only a small role. Likewise, austerity is getting the credit in Britain because Cameron has never varied from his insistence that it would work. Liberals tend to be much worse at this kind of economic message discipline. When the economy improves, they get a lot less credit because they haven’t relentlessly prepared the public with a very simple message about what they’ve been doing.
On a related note, Wren-Lewis points out that Britain’s central government deficit in 2013 was 7.5 percent of GDP. Cameron touts this as evidence of his fiscal stinginess. In America, the federal deficit in 2013 was 4.1 percent of GDP. Conventional wisdom ignores this and continues to wail that we need ever more spending cuts in order to reduce our still-unconscionable deficits. One again, note the difference that message discipline makes.

My point is not that message discipline is everything. The real world matters more. But it does matter. If you want credit for good things, you have to make up a simple, plausible story about what you’re doing and then stick to it like glue until things finally turn up. It worked for Reagan and it’s working for Cameron. Obama, on the other hand, never had a consistent story, so he’s not getting any credit as the economy improves.

POSTSCRIPT: Needless to say, Obama also had much less control over the economy than Cameron, who doesn’t have to put up with a fractious Congress. So from a message point of view, maybe he was just screwed. Still, I suspect Obama could have done better than he did.

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If You Want Credit For an Improving Economy, You Have to Seize It

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2014 Could Be a Good Year For President Obama

by adndseu13da Posted on December 18, 2013

Mother Jones

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A couple of days ago I wrote that 2013 had been a rough year for President Obama:

It started with the fiscal cliff showdown and then barreled straight into Scandalmania (Benghazi+IRS+AP subpoenas); Edward Snowden and the NSA leaks; the Syria U-turn; the government shutdown; and finally the Obamacare website debacle.

Steve Benen takes a look at these same events and pushes back:

Twice congressional Republicans threatened debt-ceiling default; twice Obama stood his ground….Congressional Republicans shut down the government to extract White House concessions. Obama and congressional Democrats stood firm and the GOP backed down….forged an international agreement to rid Syria of chemical weapons….The “scandals” the media hyped relentlessly in the spring proved to be largely meaningless.

Nice try! And there’s something to this. Obama did manage to squeeze out “victories” in the fiscal cliff and government shutdown fights, Scandalmania mostly turned into a nothingburger, and Syria and Iran may yet turn out to be foreign policy wins.

But at best, that’s for the future. For now, 2013 just looks a year that Obama barely survived, bruised and bloody. It’s possible that the other guy looks even worse, of course, and after watching John Boehner’s press conference a couple of days ago, I’d say it’s fair to think so.

The good news, such as it is, is that all this stuff might set up Obama for a decent 2014. If Republicans realize it’s pointless to pick more debt ceiling fights; if Obamacare starts working smoothly; if we strike a decent deal with Iran; and if the economy picks up—if all those things happen, then 2014 will look pretty good. It probably can’t look much worse.

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2014 Could Be a Good Year For President Obama

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