Category: Legal

From Liberal Values: To Hell With Facts–Rick Santorum Wants To Keep Science Out Of Politics

Posted on by TL

From Liberal Values by our good friend Ron Chusid:

Conservatives have developed their own “news” sources such as Fox and right wing talk radio to protect them from hearing actual facts about the outside world. When the wish to hide the fact that they are promoting views which directly contradict the views of the Founding Fathers on subjects such as separation of church and state, they promote their own revisionist history. They ignore sound economic principles to promote their brand of Voodoo Economics, regardless of how often their economic view fail in the real world. Conservatives especially concentrate on rejecting science when the facts contradict their views, including on creationism, denying geology and cosmology when it contradicts their views on the creation of the earth and the universe, and denying climate change.

I’ve had numerous discussions with conservatives who have openly rejected science, believing scientific evidence can be ignored when it contradicts their religious beliefs, but political leaders are rarely as open in their contempt for science. Rick Santorum is an exception in his open hostility towards science. He opposes keeping religion out of government, but does want to keep science out. According to the Des Moines Register, while discussing controversial subjects such as evolution and global warming, Santorum suggested that “science should get out of politics.”

Read the entire post here.

Hint to Obama Haters: “Obamacare” is Paid For, Year-by-year

Posted on by TL

From Paul Krugman at the NYTimes (for those of you who work for Fox News and have no degrees in economics, he has a NOBEL PRIZE in economics):

I assume that this is coming from some right-wing source. But you know, the CBO has a web site, and it’s easy to check this; there’s a convenient summary of the estimates here. .And, well, the estimates say that the reform is fully paid for:

Oh, and it’s paid for year by year, too — whatever you may have heard about 10 years of taxes paying for 6 years of coverage, or whatever, they’re basically lies.

More here.

MSNBC: Government Tested AIDS Drugs on Foster Kids Without Federal Law Protection

Posted on by TL

Incredibly disturbing news from MSNBC:

Government-funded researchers tested AIDS drugs on hundreds of foster children over the past two decades, often without providing them a basic protection afforded in federal law and required by some states, an Associated Press review has found.

The research funded by the National Institutes of Health spanned the country. It was most widespread in the 1990s as foster care agencies sought treatments for their HIV-infected children that weren’t yet available in the marketplace.

The practice ensured that foster children — mostly poor or minority — received care from world-class researchers at government expense, slowing their rate of death and extending their lives. But it also exposed a vulnerable population to the risks of medical research and drugs that were known to have serious side effects in adults and for which the safety for children was unknown.

Read more and weep for the children.

NYTimes: U.S. Rejects Plan to Widen Availability of Morning-After Pill

Posted on by TL

Disappointing news from the New York Times:

In a surprise move, the nation’s health secretary stopped the Plan B morning-after pill from moving onto drugstore shelves next to the condoms, deciding Wednesday that young girls shouldn’t be able to buy it on their own.

The Food and Drug Administration was preparing to lift a controversial age limit and make Plan B One-Step the nation’s first over-the-counter emergency contraceptive, available for purchase by people of any age without a prescription.

But Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius intervened at the eleventh hour and overruled her own experts.

Plan B instead will remain behind the pharmacy counter, as it is sold today — available without a prescription only for those 17 and older who show an ID proving their age.

That this comes from this sometimes-perplexing Democratic administration is one thing. That the move comes in direct opposition to the administration’s own experts baffles me.

If Congress (Read – The GOP) Does Not Act, Middle Class Taxes Will Rise

Posted on by TL

It’s simple.

If Congress — meaning the Republicans in Congress as Democrats are on board — does not support President Obama’s plan to extend and expand the payroll tax cut, middle class taxes will rise.

Find out how much your taxes will rise here.

I will lose over $1000.  How much will you lose?

Watch and read President Obama’s weekly address here on this crucial issue.

I Believe Herman Cain

Posted on by TL
Herman Cain ad
Herman Cain and his Mona Lisa smile. Sincere, or creepy?

I believe Herman Cain.

I believe Herman Cain has not a single clue that groping a woman without her permission, trying to kiss her without her permission, and other bawdy actions, qualify as sexual harassment.

Herman Cain does not believe he sexually harassed anyone.

Consider Cain’s remarks regarding attorney Gloria Allred, hired by Sharon Bialek, one of the women who came forward alleging sexual harassment by Herman Cain, “Let me put it to you this way: I can’t think of anything I would hire her to do,” Cain laughed, referring to Allred. “I can’t think of a thing.”

I believe there are other men and women like Herman Cain who believe likewise.

Heard a few of them today on Chicago’s  WBBM as the station reported Cain’s suspension of his presidential campaign. “Give-em heck, Herman!” someone called to the candidate as he made his announcement.

I believe there are people who don’t get it.

It’s a question of ethics, and we don’t get to write our own rules.

Paul Krugman on Things to Tax

Posted on by TL

Let me start with the end, and then you go read the entire piece: “The point I’m making here isn’t that taxes are all we need; it is that they could and should be a significant part of the solution.”

Gotta love Krugman. From the New York Times:

The supercommittee was a superdud — and we should be glad. Nonetheless, at some point we’ll have to rein in budget deficits. And when we do, here’s a thought: How about making increased revenue an important part of the deal?

And I don’t just mean a return to Clinton-era tax rates. Why should 1990s taxes be considered the outer limit of revenue collection? Think about it: The long-run budget outlook has darkened, which means that some hard choices must be made. Why should those choices only involve spending cuts? Why not also push some taxes above their levels in the 1990s?

I hope the President is listening to this man. When I met David Plouffe at a book signing a couple of years ago, I mentioned Paul Krugman. David responded, “He certainly has his opinions.”

Yes, David, he does. But they’re informed opinions and the man has a Nobel Prize in ECONOMICS.

Someone at the White House, someone in Congress, PLEASE! Page Paul Krugman! We need the conscience of a liberal today, not narrow ideologies!

Rocky Horror Robbers: 2 Transvestites Charged In Lincoln Park Attacks

Posted on by TL
Brandon Arnold and Michael Burns
Brandon Arnold and Michael Burns dressed as women to commit robberies in Chicago's Lincoln Park. Archived on November 26, 2011. | Police photo

Had to write this one up.

The two dudes on the right are, well, dudes, arrested by police and charged after they allegedly threatened people with pepper spray to get them to give up their goods.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Brandon Arnold, 24, and Michael Burns, 21, appeared Saturday in weekend Bond Court — where defendants don’t always look their best — sporting well-groomed, luxurious hair. Burns had his tight shirt unbuttoned almost to his navel.

“They were both dressed as women” when they accosted two people in two separate cases Friday afternoon in the Lincoln Park neighborhood, a Cook County prosecutor said.

“They approached the victims, demanded property, and threatened [them] with Mace.”

Well, at least they looked fabulous for their close-ups — allegedly.

On The Right, Hateful Words Are Fired Like Bullets

Posted on by TL

Read this commentary, please, from the Washington Post.

After today’s horribly tragic events in Tucson, Arizona, read:

The governor of Ohio, James Rhodes, demonized the war protesters. They were "worse than the Brownshirts and the communist element. . . . We will use whatever force necessary to drive them out of Kent."

That was the language of that time. And now it is the language of our time. It is the language of Glenn Beck, who fetishizes about liberals and calls Barack Obama a racist. It is the language of rage that fuels too much of the Tea Party and is the sum total of gubernatorial hopeful Carl Paladino’s campaign message in New York. It is all this talk about "taking back America" (from whom?) and this inchoate fury at immigrants and, of course, this raw anger at Muslims, stoked by politicians such as Newt Gingrich and Rick Lazio, the latter having lost the GOP primary to Paladino for, among other things, not being sufficiently angry. "I’m going to take them out," Paladino vowed at a Tea Party rally in Ithaca, N.Y.

Back in the Vietnam War era, the left also used ugly language and resorted to violence. But the right, as is its wont, stripped the antiwar movement of its citizenship. It turned dissent into treason, which, in a way, was the worst treason of all. It made dissidents into the storied "other" who had nothing in common with the rest of us. They were not opponents; they were the enemy: Fire!

Yes, that Washington Post.

Read the full commentary.