The GOP's super-duper Death Panels!

Better ignore this unfortunate finding David Gregory -- so you can talk more about Bieber.

As many as 17,000 Americans will die directly as a result of states deciding not to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, according to a new study. Researchers from Harvard University and City University of New York have estimated that between 7,115 and 17,104 deaths will be "attributable to the lack of Medicaid expansion in opt-out states" in a study published in Health Affairs.

"The results were sobering," Samuel Dickman, one of the authors, said, according to the Morning Call. "Political decisions have consequences, some of them lethal."

"A black man is President, so people are going to be sentenced to death. God Bless 'Murica!

Sincerely,

The GOP"

Shorter West Virginia Government

Citizens, sure there's poison in your water, but it isn't poison from you know where, it's just poison in your drinking water. No need for concern.

Early Wednesday evening, the state Department of Health and Human Resources issued a statement that called Simonton's comments regarding formaldehyde "totally unfounded" and said his testimony "does not speak to the health and safety of West Virginians." Dr. Letitia Tierney, commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health, said Wednesday evening that the chemists the state had consulted with all said the formaldehyde could not have come from the MCHM. "Our experts are all in agreement that it's unlikely that his findings are in any way related to the chemical spill," she said. "It's already in our environment."

This about sums it up

I suppose one could grow rich indeed on calling out other countries issues while ignoring one's own -- but then there would be so much less to write about. And besides, blatant legal physical intimidation of gays and lesbians in America is so six months ago.*

On the eve of the Sochi Winter Games, more than 50 current and former Olympians have called on the Russian authorities to reconsider recently introduced anti-gay laws that forbid "gay propaganda" aimed at under-18s and that have led to a wave of homophobic attacks. Some of the 52 Olympians, with dozens of medals between them and including 12 Sochi competitors, have also criticised the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and multinational sponsors for not doing more to force Vladimir Putin's administration to scale back the legislation.

Of course, the IOC follows the money...and since Russia has the World Cup in 2018, FIFA hopes to hoover-up the rest -- without the messy details of human rights.

Meanwhile, Russia has its priorities right...it's illegal to be gay...but:

Russia continues to provide safe haven for the alleged Russian mafia boss accused of bribing judges at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, in one of the worst Olympic scandals ever. Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov lives a life of luxury in Moscow despite an Interpol arrest warrant, known as a red notice.

*Well, in 22 of the United States at least.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

It all comes together

It all makes so much sense.

Scott MacIntyre, the former common law husband of Rob Ford's sister, filed a statement of claim Wednesday alleging the Toronto mayor was behind his vicious, jailhouse beating in March, 2012.

And MacIntyre believes that infamous video showing Ford ranting about wanting to kill an unnamed man and "poke his eyes out" was all about him.

And we have the suspected enforcer.

TORONTO (AP) — A police official says Justin Bieber is expected to turn himself in to face an assault charge in Toronto.

America's Concern Troll

Richard Cohen, once again needs a movie to explain to him how the world works.

He's Reaganing.

Wait until he sees "Milk" or "Silkwood"

The GOP's newest star psychopath

Somebody to take up the Christie-mantle.

It started out like dozens of other interviews after Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. But when NY1 reporter Mike Scotto decided to press Rep. Michael Grimm on his personal campaign finances, the Republican congressman abruptly ended the interview. “This is only about the president’s speech, thank you,” Grimm says before walking off camera.

It’s certainly not the first time a politician has walked out during a live interview. But what happened next is shocking even to the most jaded observer. After Stotto returns to his report, Rep. Grimm, a former FBI agent and Marine, suddenly storms back into the camera frame, whispering a threat to the reporter. "I will break you in half," he says, reportedly threatening to throw the journalist over a balcony inside the U.S. Congress.

Although the audio is largely muted, NY1 employees say that Grimm said, "Let me be clear to you, you ever do that to me again I'll throw you off this balcony.”

The GOP loves calling Barack Obama a thug...meanwhile, they actually LOVE thuggish behavior.  This guy is going to be their newest star.

No irony, or human being, too rich for the modern Republican.

Well, there's a headline you don't see every day

Well, this is…uh, discomforting

The last scandal of any note I recall in the Air Force (other than droning middle eastern weddings for which they are merely the tool) was the attempted evangelizing rampant at the Air Force Academy. Which leads me to wonder whether that played any precipitating role in this:

The cheating scandal inside the Air Force's nuclear missile corps is expanding, with the number of service members implicated by investigators now roughly double the 34 reported just a week ago, officials said Tuesday.

That sounds kind of bad. How bad?

The Air Force announced on Jan. 15 that while it was investigating possible criminal drug use by some airmen, it discovered that one missile officer at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., had shared test questions with 16 other officers. It said another 17 admitted to knowing about this cheating but did not report it.

Cheating on tests regarding the handling of nuclear missiles? Holy crap!

The Air Force has 450 intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs, on alert at all times, with a contingent of about 500 launch control officers, some number of which are unavailable on any given day due to illness or other reasons. So the number temporarily unavailable for duty because of the cheating scandal is substantial — about 14 percent of the total if the number of those who have been decertified is now double the original 34.

I'm going to go drink now. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

R.I.P. Pete Seeger

Dead after a long, eventful life. And a message for that rich asshole who compared his plight to Nazi-era Jews.

Riding the tiger...in a circle.

So all those rallies and courage taken on by many Egyptians, and supported by the West (for a while) have come full circle. A Pete Townshend lyric come to life (and it isn't Squeeze Box):

Egypt's top military body has given its approval for armed forces chief Field Marshal Abdul Fattah al-Sisi to run for the presidency. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (Scaf) said: "The people's trust in Sisi is a call that must be heeded as the free choice of the people." Security sources say he will resign and announce his candidacy within days. Field Marshal Sisi led the ousting of President Mohammed Morsi in July, following mass protests against him.

Strongmen love a full-circle, and so, apparently, do western governments. [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

"Hey everybody, get with the Pogrom"

Yeah, right...and you also suck.

The mayor of Sochi, host of the Winter Olympics, has said there are no gay people in the city.

Anatoly Pakhomov said homosexuals were welcome at the Games - as long as they "respect Russian law" and "don't impose their habits on others".

Opposition leader Boris Nemtsov said there were several gay bars in Sochi.

Something tells me Mr. Nemtsov is more accurate.

Well, obviously this has all worked out well

The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan has accomplished more than just corruption, oil-company options, opium money, and fiery death from the sky.

Nope, the hellscape that is, and has long been Afghanistan has managed to become even worse.

Huzzah!

Afghanistan is raising a stunted generation whose hobbled development could spell disaster for the country's feeble economy and undermine the impact of billions of dollars in aid poured into health, education and other areas. More than half of Afghan girls and boys suffer damage to their minds and bodies that cannot be undone because they are poorly nourished in the crucial first two years of life, doctors and other experts say. The finding raises serious questions about the legacy of more than 10 years of western involvement in Afghanistan.

Hey, maybe we can turn it up a couple notches and export all our lead-based paint their too?

You know, for "freedom's sake".

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

"Not enough of that incredible Magic Wand technology"

Sorry, cannot get over the nature of Hitachi's diversified portfolio:

A subsidiary of General Electric has agreed to pay $2.7 million to resolve claims its employees made false statements to the U.S. Department of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission about a reactor component. The Justice Department announced the settlement Thursday with General Electric Hitachi Nuclear Energy Americas, a provider of nuclear energy products and services based in Wilmington, N.C.

Of course, GE, unlike Hitachi, doesn't make vibrators...but they do employ Joe Scarborough.

Big week for outreach

I was momentarily outraged by Mike Huckabee saying Democrats assume women cannot control their libidos.

Then, being a Democrat, I remembered what it must be like to be Mike Huckabee and how his personal experiences have repeatedly demonstrated that women have no trouble refusing to have sex with him.

And he's not even on this list.

"You are getting so bombed in John Bolton's fan-fiction"

How dare Iran's government be reasonable and the like. Don't they know the career of three quarter of the nation's foreign policy talking heads and much of the Republican primaries depend on advocating making Tehran glow ironically...so as to avoid their getting nukes?

Iran's president has urged the rest of the world to stop treating his country as pariah state, and said a deal over its nuclear programme would pave the way for the oil-rich nation to become the next big emerging market. In an olive branch to the international community, Hassan Rouhani told a packed conference hall at the World Economic Forum in Davos that he wanted to end the standoff with the west along with the sanctions that have crippled the economy. "Come and visit Iran to see the investment opportunities," he said.

Oh dammit all...conveying money-making opportunities in a relatively untapped, yet unbombed market? That's moral and logical and naturally "dirty pool". [cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Virginia is for lovers...of corruption

So much for "gay marriages" weakening other traditional marriages. It seems former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen were able to engage in the even more traditional institution of graft bringing them even closer together as a couple...AND co-conspirators.

Never have truer words been spoken...

In 1944, in South Carolina, a fourteen year old black child had his life ended in this manner.

The youngest person to be executed in the US since the 19th century, the black teenager was a little over five feet tall, weighed 95lbs, and had to put a bible on the seat beneath him so that he could fit into the electric chair. His feet dangled some way above the floor.

He was executed 84 days after his trial ended. A trial which convicted him after lasting all of three hours and after an all-white jury determined after ten minutes he had bludgeoned two young white girls to death.

After all these years the young man's case, the case of George Stinney may be reopened, the scab removed after a seventy-year old lingering wound.

And now we come to a family member of the victims, who opposes reopening the case, but sums up attitudes towards past injustice in this country vividly.

Frankie Bailey Dyches said she believed Stinney had “got what he deserved” and that “justice was served, according to the laws in 1944”.

And that, apparently, is justice enough. Meanwhile, things stay pretty awesome for wealthier white guys.

[cross-posted at Firedoglake]

Sic transit Holy Shit!

The never ending horrible behavior and embarrassment of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church continues unabated.

Among the documents are relatively recent letters from Cardinal George to Norbert Maday, who is in prison serving a 20 year sentence, after being found guilty in 1994 for child sex abuse and threatening witnesse. He was informed by George in a letter written two years later that he would not be dismissed from the clerical state. "You have suffered enough by your present deprivation of ministry and your incarceration," George wrote.

Sexually abuse a child, remain a priest.

Advocate individual choice in reproduction -- you are not allowed to take part in communion.

Sounds nice and proportionate right?

Branching out

I guess among the revelations in the Bob McDonnell indictments is that evangelical Republicans are diversifying their abuse portfolio's in the ol' Anti-Government campaign. In addition to kicking the poor because God has cursed them, you can use State employees as your donor's literal guinea pigs.

In August 2011, following an email from Bob McDonnell to Virginia's secretary of health, Maureen McDonnell met at the Executive Mansion with Williams and one of the secretary's senior policy advisors. At that meeting, according to the indictment, Williams discussed the idea of having Virginia government employees use Anatabloc, Star Scientific's anti-inflammatory dietary supplement, "as a control group for research studies."

This sort of thing can keep you from getting into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

It's not a crime, if you are too wealthy and white to do any time

Justice, western style.

A former Halliburton manager was sentenced Tuesday to one year of probation for destroying evidence in the aftermath of BP's massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Anthony Badalamenti, of Katy, Texas, had faced a maximum of one year in prison at his sentencing by U.S. District Judge Jay Zainey. Badalamenti pleaded guilty in October to one misdemeanor count of destruction of evidence. The 62-year-old also has to perform 100 hours of community service and pay a $1,000 fine. Badalamenti was the cementing technology director for Halliburton Energy Services Inc., BP's cement contractor on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. Prosecutors said he instructed two Halliburton employees to delete data during a post-spill review of the cement job on BP's blown-out Macondo well.

And good luck keeping your lunch down as you think about the poor black kid doing 5-years for selling pot.

The judge said that the sentence of probation is "very reasonable in this case." "I still feel that you're a very honorable man," he told Badalamenti. "I have no doubt that you've learned from this mistake."