Quick Note: Republicans Release ACA Stats---and They're True!

Did you hear about the latest Affordable Care Act statistics that the Republican Party is using as campaign material?  (That's like stand-up-comic material, but not as funny.)

It seems that, while Democrats are bragging of the millions of people who flocked to ACA portals at the last minute, calling it a success for the President's signature health care act, Republicans have found a way to turn that positive into a negative.  They are using government statistics released last week to show that millions of people signed up for health care, but never paid their first premium. 

For a change of pace, this GOP claim is absolutely true! 

What they're not telling you is those millions of unpaid premiums--the vast majority of which are for those who signed up for health insurance after March 15--aren't due yet. 

Details are important.

May 5 - Monday Quote

My favorite quote from this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner...

monday quote:  Let's face it, Fox, you'll miss me when I'm gone.  It will be harder to convince the American people that Hillary was born in Kenya. (Barack Obama, President of the United States, 1961 -     )

As an addendum to yesterday's Benghazi post...

Quick Note: Beleaguering Benghazi -- Oversight vs. Armed Forces

Last week, Retired Air Force Brigadier General Robert Lovell gave testimony before the Republican led House Oversight Committee, "There are accounts of time, space and capability, discussions of the question, 'could we have gotten there in time to make a difference?' Well, the discussion is not in the 'could or could not' in relation to time, space and capability--the point is we should have tried.  As the saying goes: 'Always move to the sound of the guns."

When asked if the White House had ever issued orders to "go save the people in Benghazi", Mr. Lovell replied "Not to my knowledge, sir."

(Signal the Republican happy-dance music.)

In the latest effort to use the Benghazi tragedy for political gain, the Republican led committee immediately seized on his testimony as proof that the White House was to blame for the four American deaths there.

In an attempt to take the air out of the Republican jubilation over Mr. Lovell's testimony, Representative Gerald Connolly, (D-Virginia) asked for some clarification.  "There might be some who, for various and sundry reasons, would like to distort your testimony and suggest that you're testifying that we could have, should have done a lot more than we did because we had capabilities we simply didn't utilize."

Mr. Lovell, a former deputy director of intelligence at Africa Command who was on duty in Germany at the time of the Benghazi attack, replied, "That is not my testimony.  No, sir.  What I'm speaking to is that, as a nation, we should try to do more."

Which sounds a lot like trying to play both sides of the argument to me...otherwise known as covering-my-butt.

Buck McKeon (R-California), chairman of the House Armed Forces Committee--a man certainly in a position to know whether military intervention could or could not have made a difference--told the investigating committee that Brigadier General Lovell was an unreliable witness.     
"(He) did not serve in a capacity that gave him reliable insight into operation options available to commanders during the attack....The Armed Services Committee has interviewed more than a dozen witnesses in the operation chain of command that night, yielding thousands of pages of transcripts, e-mails and other documents.  We have no evidence that Department of State officials delayed the decision to deploy what few resources (they) had available to respond."

Taking into account his own committee's investigation, along with the months and months of testimony that fellow Republican Darrell Issa's investigation has collected, Mr. McKeon said, "I'm pretty well satisfied that given where the troops were, how quickly the thing happened, and how quickly it dissipated, we probably couldn't have done more than we did."

Ignoring Mr. McKeon's assessment, Mr. Issa has decided to subpoena Secretary of State John Kerry and, not to be outdone in the GOP's on-going witch hunt, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) announced he plans to appoint an additional, more select committee to further investigate Benghazi.

Because, if they can't keep their frenzied search for a Benghazi conspiracy alive, they're afraid that Hillary Clinton will be moving into the White House in 2017.

Republicans Say the Darndest Things - Christians Only, Please

Roy Moore

Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court

Speaking in Mississippi at the Pastor for Life Luncheon, Justice Roy Moore said that the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment applies only to Christians.  He explained it this way:

"Buddha didn't create us, Mohammed didn't create us, it was the God of the Holy Scriptures (that created America.)  They didn't bring the Koran over on the pilgrim ship.  Let's get real, let's go back and learn our history."

So, in Mr. Moore's America, Christians are #1 and everyone else is relegated to the Realm of the Great Unwashed.  I guess the Biblical admonition to "Love thy neighbor as thyself" isn't all that important in Mr. Moore's church.  And as for learning our history, it appears his elementary school forgot the chapter on "All men are created equal." 

Why do I feel that if Roy Moore were to encounter the Good Samaritan, he would advise him to keep walking?

Quick Note: More Communities Raise the Minimum Wage While Congress Balks--Again.

Minnesota, Maryland, Connecticut and now Hawaii.  Our 50th state has passed a bill that will raise their minimum wage to $10.10/hour by 2018.

On Thursday, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray (D) presented a plan to increase his city's minimum wage to $15.00/hour.  His plan boasts broad political support and a coalition of labor and business groups are joining in the push to make sure his plan succeeds. 

And then we have the U.S. Congress, where Senate Republicans blocked the vote on whether to raise the hourly rate for the poorest workers.  Just one Republican stood up to his Party and voted with Democrats on the wage issue:  Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee.  He said that he felt the measure needed some changes; but at least he was willing to do the job he was elected to do by signaling his willingness to talk about it!

A poll conducted by Bloomberg just a few weeks ago, showed that 69% of Americans support raising the minimum wage to $10.10/hour.  Despite obvious public support for the increase, Republicans continue to argue the unproven opinion--one that lacks the support of many economists- that it would hurt businesses and jobs.   

Apparently no one in the Republican Party has bothered to talk to business owners in the Seattle area; but then I sincerely doubt they talk to anyone but themselves and their well-monied handlers.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Tuesday shows that 49% of Americans favor the Democrats' view on the minimum wage issue over that held by the GOP. 

But then, when was the last time the GOP listened to the people they're supposed to represent?  If you're not waving large sums of campaign money in their faces, they seem particularly myopic.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) appears to want to believe that Americans struggling to survive on poverty wages should blame the Democrats.  "(Democrats) seem to think they can coast on talking points and stale ideas--that the American people haven't been paying attention to their recent dismal record at actually helping the people they claim to care about."

Would that "dismal record" include protecting millions of Americans with health insurance?  

History says that Republicans are more apt to vote in mid-term elections than Democrats.  With that knowledge, Republicans are already salivating at the thought of being rewarded for doing nothing for the average citizen by seeing Republican voters return them to the majority in the Senate.

We can't let that happen.  It is time to tell the GOP they can no longer sit in Congress and collect a hefty paycheck while ignoring 99% of the American people.

The minimum wage is only one issue. If we want clean air and water, equal rights for women, equitable voting rights, immigration reform, improved infrastructure, fair taxation and continued health care, we have to tell them, "This is OUR country too."  Spring primaries are happening now.  VOTE!  It's good practice for November.

NRA Nixes Smart Gun Technology

Every week there is a story about some child accidentally killing another child with a gun that was left unsecured by a careless gun owner.  Armatix, a Southern California gun lock company owned by Belinda Padilla, has developed a smart gun that is designed to work only for the gun's owner. 

To activate the gun, the owner must enter a 5 digit PIN into a radio frequency watch.  The gun disables itself if it is more than 10 inches away from the radio signal.

James Mitchell, owner of the Oak Tree Gun Club near Los Angeles, was an early supporter of the smart gun.  He provided Ms. Padilla with a specially decorated lane at his club range where she could demonstrate the gun for club members.  Branded sweatshirts and jackets could be purchased in the club's gun shop, and a sign outside the front door advertised that sales of the 22 calibre pistol were planned to begin this Spring. Mr. Mitchell was quoted by the Washington Post as saying the iP1 smart gun "could revolutionize the gun industry."

Then the NRA got involved.

what eye thynk:   The NRA and its rabid followers saw, not a safety feature, but another government conspiracy.  Wayne LaPierre said the gun would open "the door to a ban on all guns that do not possess the government-required technology."

Gun enthusiasts, taking their cue from the NRA, called for a boycott of the Oak Tree Gun Club.  Calgun.net, a gun owner Internet forum, called for a vigilante-style investigation of both Oak Tree and Armatix.  One Calgun.net poster wrote "I have no qualms with the idea of personally and professionally leveling the life of someone who has attempted to profit from disarming me and my fellow Americans."  

Shortly afterwards, Ms. Padilla, who has been the target of late night phone calls and has seen pictures of the address where she maintains a P.O. box appear on social media sites, arrived at the gun club to find her booth painted over, her signage gone and all her branded merchandise removed from the shop's shelves. "Honestly, I was in disbelief," she said.  "It's like I never existed."  James Mitchell now denies ever having had any connection to Ms. Padilla or her smart gun. 

"Right now, unfortunately, these organizations that are scaring everybody have the power," Ms. Padilla said.  "All we're doing is providing extra levels of safety to your individual right to bear arms.  And if you don't want our gun, don't buy it.  It's not for everyone."

When people like Wayne LaPierre read of a child whose life may have been saved if the loaded gun found under her uncle's sofa cushion had been Ms. Padila's iP1 smart pistol instead of an NRA approved, unlocked handgun, do they feel anything at all for that family?  How out-sized is their self-absorption?

Fortunately, there are people like entrepreneur and gun-safety advocate Ron Conway, who do not see gun safety as anti-ethical to the Second Amendment. Mr. Conway is offering $1 million in prize money for developers of advanced gun safety designs and technology through a U.S. Justice Department grants program. 
  
Organizations like the NRA seem to believe they hold the moral high ground in condemning people like Ron Conway or Belinda Padilla.  But when your crusade attracts people who brag they could gleefully "level the life" of gun safety advocates, your ground is neither high nor moral.