madness of the GOP is the central issue of our time

[boutons_deux]

North Carolina is the latest (red, slave) state to find welfare recipients rarely use illegal drugs

Among 7,600 applicants to the Work First Program who were screened between August 3 and December 31, 2015, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Among them, 21 tested positive — that's 0.3 percent of the applicants

This rate is substantially lower than both the state and national rate of illicit drug use.


http://www.vox.com/2016/2/16/1102182...-drugs-welfare

[boutons_deux]

“Obama has a soft spot for sexuals because of the years he spent as a male pros ute in his twenties”

Meet the looniest politician in Texas (and that’s saying something)

Bat- nuts candidates are everywhere in Texas -- and sometimes even win. This year, there's a special case

Ah, Texas! The Lone Star Beer, the barbecue, the boots, the bull , the bat -crazy candidates routinely elected to public office. Among the elected officials is a Republican attorney general so religiously phobic that he has gone to court to try to dissolve the marriages of a lesbian couple from Austin and a gay couple from Houston, one of whom is deceased.

Now comes a serious contender for the 15-member State Board of Education, the body that enacted curriculum guidelines requiring students to learn about Confederate heroes, and required teachers to explain the equivalency of Abraham Lincoln’s and Jefferson Davis’s inaugural addresses, as well as the ways international ins utions such as the United Nations threaten U.S. sovereignty.

Republican candidate Mary Lou Bruner might fit right in—and move seamlessly from her current gig as vocal critic of the board to elected board member.



The retired teacher has written that “Evolution is a religious philosophy with propaganda supporting the religion of Atheism.” She also claims that scientists have ignored and hidden evidence that humans and dinosaurs walked the planet at the same time.

Bruner, in fact, has written about the extinction of dinosaurs.

“When the flood waters subsided and rushed into the oceans there was no vegetation on the earth because the earth had been covered with water. . . . The dinosaurs on [Noah’s ark] may have been babies and not able to reproduce. . . . After the flood, the few remaining Behemoths and Leviathans may have become extinct because there was not enough vegetation on earth for them to survive to reproductive age.”

Meanwhile,

“Climate change has nothing to do with weather or climate, it’s all about system change from capitalism (free enterprise) to Socialism-Communism. The Climate Change HOAX was Karl Marx’s idea. It took time to ‘condition’ the people so they would believe such a HOAX!”
Is Bruner an anomaly?

Not hardly, as they say in Texas.

http://www.salon.com/2016/02/17/obama_has_a_soft_spot_for_ sexuals_because_of_t he_years_he_spent_as_a_male_pros ute_in_his_twen ties_meet_the_looniest_politician_in_texas_and_tha ts_saying_something/

What's The Matter With Texas?

[boutons_deux]

Georgia GOPer blocks rape kit bill: We don’t need law ‘just because it makes you feel good’

Georgia Republican state Sen. Renee Unterman has blocked a bill with bipartisan support that would require law enforcement in the state to account for untested evidence of sexual assaults.Democratic state Rep. Scott Holcomb said that he sponsored House Bill 827 — or the Pursuing Justice for Rape Victims Act — because audits had shown that, in some cases, thousands of rape kits had been ignored for years.

But Unterman, who chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, said that she would not allow the bill to move forward for a full vote on the Senate floor because it had been “overly politicized” by Holcomb, according to the Atlanta Journal-Cons ution.

“If there was a problem, I would be Johnny on the spot and I would have written the legislation,” Unterman insisted. “I think he really overly politicized it in an election year and I’ve got a problem with that.”

“There’s no reason to write a law just because it makes you feel good,” the lawmakertold CBS 46 on Monday.

“I’ve been asking that representative to show me where the back log is, show me where this rape kits are?”

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/03/geor...e+Raw+Story%29

Repug political person says politics isn't operative for rape victims:

there is no problem

show me the data (variant of "needs mor study")

Even Repug wimmens conduct the Repug War on Wimmens on behalf of the Repug Rape Caucus.

[boutons_deux]

This Is Where Right-Wing Radicalism Is Festering: While the Nation Watches the Presidential Race, Scary Things Are Happening at State Legislatures

What's going on in Republican-run state legislatures is just as terrifying as the GOP presidential race.

Republicans continue the multi-decade project of turning our nation into a right-wing wasteland by focusing their efforts where they can have the most impact with the least attention: state legislatures.

It’s easy to get inured to the relentless drumbeat of stories of Republican-controlled state legislatures passing bills codifying the culture war obsessions of the right, and with the Republican primary serving as a distraction, the state horror show is getting less national attention than it usually does. Which is how Republicans like it, because they can maximize the damage while minimizing the pushback. That’s why it’s critical to pay attention, even if it can, at times, be overwhelming.

As it has been for years now, the No. 1 priority for Republican state legislatures is making sex as fraught and unsafe an experience as possible for women, especially low-income women. As I reported earlier last week, Florida passed a massive bill that will cut off access to both birth control and abortion, by reducing funding and passing medically unnecessary restrictions to make it simply too expensive to offer affordable care to women, especially through Planned Parenthood.

Now Indiana’s Legislature has passed a bill that forces women to give birth if a doctor has detected a fetal abnormality. Which, yes, would mean that a pregnant woman who contracts Zika would lose her right to abortion, while a woman with a healthy pregnancy would retain her right to say no to giving birth. Even some Republicans balked at the sadistic pleasure their colleagues take in the idea of forcing women to give birth to children who will suffer, die or be too much for women to care for.

“Today is a perfect example of a bunch of middle-aged guys sitting in this room making decisions about what we think is best for women,” state Rep. Sean Eberhart, a Republican, said. He voted no on the advice of his wife.
The breathless obsession with making sure all those sex-having women pay has completely enthralled state legislatures across the country. Oklahoma state Sen. Nathan Dahm is pushing a bill that would strip any doctor who performs an abortion of his or her medical license. His colleague, state Sen. Joseph Silk, went one further, authoring a bill that would charge anyone who performs an abortionof murder. Both bills have come out of committee, though Senate Republicans are holding the murder bill from a vote right now. Hopefully they’ll keep it that way, because they look like a bunch of yahoos.

In Iowa, state Sen. Jake Chapman is trying to make abortion a “hate crime.” This is no doubt based on right-wing propaganda that argues that women get abortions because they have irrational bigotry toward embryos and not because of mundane things like they want to control when and how they have children.

And, of course, you have the Planned Parenthood defunding orgies. On top of Florida, the legislatures in Missouri, Virginia and Arizona all took steps to cut Planned Parenthood patients off from getting affordable checkups and contraception.

But while the obsession with female sexuality is so strong that one is tempted to label it “single-minded,” the sad truth is that state legislatures have plenty of time for other right-wing hobby horses.

Wisconsin’s assembly passed a bill in February that would fine cities, dubbed “sanctuary cities” by right-wingers, that have policies against police harassing people about their immigration status. The bill is aimed at Madison, which has a policy of not turning arrestees over to federal immigration unless they are charged with violent crimes.

In Iowa, legislators are literally considering a bill that would remove age restrictions from firearm handling, allowing kids younger than 14 to use handguns with parental supervision.

In Arizona, lawmakers quietly started moving a bill, under the guise of simplification of campaign finance, that would double the amount of dark money that can be spent on campaigns in the state. “Dark money” is money that is donated to groups by anonymous donors, and the bill is being pushed by Americans for Prosperity, a Koch brothers-run political action group.

Arizona is also pushing a bill that would ban state officials from enforcing any federal executive action, policy or court decision that restricts access to firearms.

Of course, the right-wing conspiracy theory about our courts practicing “Sharia law” is still being chewed over by state legislatures. This year, Idaho is considering a law that would ban this nonexistent practice. It appears the main reason for bringing such bills to the table is to use the legislative floor to make speeches demonizing Muslims. “There is no issue right now, there is no issue,” Democratic state Rep. John Rusche said. “And to bring this piece of legislation and the supporting do ents that showed severed hands and called the Prophet Mohammed a pedophile was just beyond the pale.”

Then there are the bills codifying and protecting anti-gay discrimination that are being pushed in the guise of “religious liberty.” Missouri just passed one, despite the noble 40-hour filibuster conducted by Democrats to stop it. Georgia’s legislature passed one, too.

The Republican governor of Georgia, Nathan Deal — no doubt influenced by the major corporations and other business interests speaking out and even threatening to pull business — is refusing to sign the bill. Now the religious right is casting shade on Deal, insinuating he’s not the conservative Christian he clearly is. (He’s just one that doesn’t want to see his state bleed money so a few bakers can be mean to gay couples.)

A lot of these bills will die in the legislative process, of course. But not all. The Florida and Indiana anti-choice bills, for instance, are slam dunks. But even if the bills don’t become law, the frequency and severity of these bills should be alarming.

The state legislatures of red states have become rat’s nests of the worst kind of paranoid right-wing nuttery.

What we’re seeing on the national stage has been bred by years upon years of this nonsense, which is now trickling up and presenting a very real threat to us all.

http://www.alternet.org/election-201...ial-race-scary

[RandomGuy]

Anti-abortion activists hit new low: Ohio lawmakers attack women’s rights with hideous bill demanding they bury fetuses

The latest anti-abortion gambit occurred in Ohio, where “State lawmakers are introducing new legislation that would require women who have abortions or miscarriages to designate arrangements for burial or cremation of fetuses,” according to a report by WVXU in Cincinnati.

And no, that wasn’t a typo – women treated for miscarriages are also required to sign a form “designating burial or cremation of fetal remains,” because 6-week old embryos are human persons with friends and family members who need closure after their death.

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/22/anti..._bury_fetuses/

Wow. Didn't know that. I expect nuttiness out of that crowd, but this is a bit much even so.

[boutons_deux]

Schadenfreude time

Rush Limbaugh’s Hate Radio Network Home Facing $20 Billion Bankruptcy

Between the StopRush movement's pressure and Willard Romney's bankruptcy gang, iHeart radio is badly in debt.

Thanks to a concerted effort among conservatives, America has been addicted to hate for too long. Like many destructive commodities, as long as “hate sells” its purveyors will never stop peddling it and in 21st Century America nothing sells like hate. Conservatives thrive on peddling hate because it resonates with their increasingly ignorant racist, sexist, and nativist base. In fact, Republicans have benefitted greatly from selling hate and it was that fact that likely prompted Mormon cultist and then aspiring Republican presidential candidate Willard ‘Mitt’ Romney to direct his company, Bain Capital, to buy control of America’s leading hate radio network, Clear Channel. Romney’s intent was to use “his new” hate radio network to curry favor with the hate-addicted Republican base to win the White House in 2012.

Fortunately, not all Americans were as inclined to buy all the hate Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and others were selling and after a carefully-devised and crowd-sourced boycott effort, iHeart Radio Networks (formerly Clear Channel) is facing an over $20 billion bankruptcy. There is probably something in the Christian bible denoting how horrible it is to take pleasure in the distress of another person, but in the case of the right’s hate mongers and for the good of the nation, one cannot help but celebrate the news that Willard Romney likely helped foster the impending demise of hate radio.

It was reported late last week that the president of iHeart Media, Bob Pittman, was forced to make an emergency trip to San Antonio to personally grovel before a judge and beg for a restraining order. The order was all that stood between the network staying open and creditors putting the company into bankruptcy for defaulting on its $20 billion debt. The former Clear Channel network owns 850 radio stations across the nation that includes a substantial network of “hate radio” talk shows hosted by right-wing extremists such as Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity.

Those four popular, among conservatives, hate-mongers are guilty of propagating fear and hate among their audience by pandering to racists, misogynists, phobes, and xenophobes that consistently support Republicans.

That hate-mongering inspired a substantial group of Americans, 139,000 thus far, to sign a pe ion to boycott Rush Limbaugh’s sponsors that helped drive thousands of hate-radio advertisers to flee for fear of their own businesses’ demise. Limbaugh in particular drew the wrath of decent Americans for his attack on Sandra Fluke that incited a very small group to start the StopRush, among others, movement and organize a potent counter-attack against Limbaugh’s particularly vile brand of hate.

Of course, killing off advertising dollars had a devastating effect on hate radio, but

just as devastating was selling the company off to bankruptcy ring operators Willard Romney and Bain Capital.

After Romney’s plan to use a media giant he owned failed to win the White House, he directed Bain to implement his now-legendary scam to saddle Clear Channel with incredibly massive “private loans” that Bain and Romney knew in advance the media giant could never repay.

With mounting debt piling up, the media giant’s only hope was a desperate attempt to dig itself out of deep dark hole even while the “hate radio industry’s profit margins completely collapsed” due to advertisers suc bing to intense and well-organized public pressure to bail on hate talk. The effect was that in 2015, iHeart Media posted losses of over $661 million that sent a clear message to creditors that the corporations would never be capable of repaying its debt.

Just interest on the wrong-headed loans amounts to $1.74 billion and with advertisers virtually non-existent and mounting revenue losses, iHeart is a two-week restraining order away from bankruptcy.

What started the big rush toward bankruptcy court was a deceptive maneuver by iHeart that the corporation’s creditors’ claim is a violation of their lending agreement by shifting money from one division of the business to another instead of paying toward the debt. Naturally, iHeart Media contends that the lenders are lying and claimed that the illegal asset transfers “cons uted a permitted investment under, and fully complied with, our financing agreements.”

The creditors are furious because instead of at least attempting to make its interest payment, iHeart transferred a $200 million dividend from its Outdoor Holdings corporation to a subsidiary media company to save it. The senior debt holders who have the first claim to assets when the company goes under contend the illegal stock transfer “cons utes a default and they intend to call in the debt within 60 days.” Calling in the debt iHeart cannot pay would lead to a default that will “cascade and trigger defaults on the companies’ other crushing debts leaving everyone empty-handed; except Bain and Willard Romney.

Sadly, decent Americans will have to wait a couple of weeks to find out whether hate radio is bankrupt and unable to pay its purveyors of hate. Whatever iHeart president Pittman said to the judge earned the company a 14-day restraining order although it is highly unlikely less than two weeks is enough time to dig itself out of debt. It is true hate sells, but not enough to cover a $20 billion debt in 14 days.

The encouraging news is that the hard work and due diligence of a small number of outraged Americans who organized the various StopRush movements achieved more than just getting advertisers to flee the hate mongers; they may have had a strong hand in dealing a death blow to a major supplier of hate.

http://www.politicususa.com/2016/03/...ankruptcy.html

DEE LISH YUSS

[spurraider21]

dont really want to contribute to this generally thread, but i keep hearing the "party of Lincoln" bull ... that's gotta stop

[boutons_deux]

Congressman: If Bernie Or Hillary Is Elected They’ll Control Everything, Including When You Wake Up




Congressman Don Young (R-AK) has one solution: ridiculous conspiracy theories.

Young told WFQD on Wednesday that he initially supported Jeb Bush because he knew his “old man” and now prefers John Kasich. But, Young says, Kasich has no chance of winning because he has no “charisma” and people “don’t think anymore.”

Still, Young is seeking to rally Republicans around whoever is the nominee, calling this “the most crucial election” for Alaska and the nation. Why? Because Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton will seek to have the government “control everything you do.”

Everything? Yes, everything. Young goes on to earnestly explain that Sanders or Clinton would mandate “when to get up, what to eat, what you are thinking, what school you are going to go to and what you are going to believe.”

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/20...n-you-wake-up/

slave states!

[spurraider21]

you dont think he was being hyperbolic?

[boutons_deux]

you dont think he was being hyperbolic?

nope, he's from Arkansas, elected by rednecks who love conspiracies, love being paranoid. He was being stupid, par for the slave state course.

[spurraider21]

nope, he's from Arkansas, elected by rednecks who love conspiracies, love being paranoid. He was being stupid, par for the slave state course.

wrong. totally wrong, which makes the rest of your post hilarious

[boutons_deux]

Mississippi Senate passes bill allowing residents to carry holstered guns without permit or training

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/0...28Daily+Kos%29

[spurraider21]

just ignoring his completely moronic take/mistake

when in doubt, spam more links. dailyKOS, salon, talkingpointsmemo, etc

[boutons_deux]

Someone thought this was a good idea: Mississippi Senate passes bill allowing churches to form militias

The Mississippi Senate on Tuesday passed “Mississippi Church Protection Act, opening the door to houses of worship forming militias there.


The Act would, in part, “provide that killing a person while acting as a participant of a church or place of worship security team is justifiable homicide.” Such church security teams would authorize “designated members … to carry firearms for the protection of the congregation of such church or place of worship.”

Permissible firearms, according to the bill, include “a stun gun, concealed pistol or concealed revolver.”

The bill will now return to the House of origin for further deliberation before it reaches Republican Gov. Phil Bryant’s desk.

What the Act effectively allows is for churches to form militias. And the red-tape requirements to form these armed militias are only marginally more stringent than getting a firearms permit in the state of Mississippi.

Assuming you already have a permit, all you need to do is take “an instructional course in the safe handling and use of firearms,” and then, congratulations, you’re certified to pack heat at your church!

In explaining the legislative precedence for the Act, Republican state Sen. Sean Tindell cited the shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, where a lone white supremacist, Dylann Roof, shot and killed nine black members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church last June.

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/31/someone_thought_this_was_a_good_idea_mississippi_s enate_passes_bill_allowing_churches_to_form_militi as/

[boutons_deux]

Mississippi could now legalize discrimination against people who have premarital sex

The state legislature in Mississippi has now passed a bill to allow both public employees and private businesses to refuse to take part in gay marriages — but a whole lot of heterosexual people might be surprised at what’s in the written text here.The bill repeatedly states that “the state government shall not take any discriminatory action” against a person or religious organization for refusing to take part in objectionable marriages, adoptions, or certain other services (more on that later).

The bill’s usage of the phrase “discriminatory action,” however, is more like what laws in most states would describe as an action under anti-discrimination laws, such as “Impose, levy, or assess a monetary fine, fee, penalty or injunction,” as well as other issues involving tax statuses, professional licenses, and state contracts.


But as this bill is actually written, though, a whole lot of people in Mississippi besides sexual minorities could face discrimination, too — like the vast numbers of people who have had sex outside of marriage.

Not to worry, though — they say they’re really just thinking about the gays.

“Opponents of the bill say the bill could allow discrimination of those in the LGBT community and possibly single mothers, but [state Sen. Jenifer Branning, the lead Senate sponsor] said the bill deals only with same-sex marriage.”


So what is Section 2, and what are its ramifications? The actual text of the bill states:

“SECTION 2. The sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions protected by this act are the belief or conviction that:

“(a) Marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman;

“(b) Sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage; and

“(c) Male (man) or female (woman) refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.”

And from here, so much mischief could be done. Because while the bill specifies numerous social services provided by either state employees or private religious organizations — marriage and adoption, mainly — in all cases an employer or organization is broadly protected for having “a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction described in Section 2 of this act.”

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/03/miss...e+Raw+Story%29

[spurraider21]

just ignoring his completely moronic take/mistake

when in doubt, spam more links. dailyKOS, salon, talkingpointsmemo, etc

[boutons_deux]

redstate AK gave USA your adored girlfriend Sarah Palin.

[spurraider21]

redstate AK gave USA your adored girlfriend Sarah Palin.

arkansas
slave state

[boutons_deux]

Oregon Republican Greasebag reignites old racist meme about Vietnamese refugees eating cats and dogs

A Republican Senate candidate is being criticized for saying that Vietnamese refugees who came to Oregon “harvested” people’s pets for food because “their lifestyle didn’t mix with ours,”

when they needed something to eat, they went to their natural ways of doing it by harvesting people’s dogs and cats, their pets,” Stewart added. “I question, why can’t we go over there and help them, in their native land and protect them there.

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/oregon-republican-reignites-old-meme-about-vietnamese-refugees-eating-cats-and-dogs/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaig n=Feed%3A+TheRawStory+%28The+Raw+Story%29


http://www.rawstory.com/2016/04/oreg...e+Raw+Story%29

"why can’t we go over there"

America DID go over there, and bombed out of VN, poisoned the country that's STILL poisoning the country and babies. Just another total ED UP LOST WAR by the corrupt US military

Vietnam War casualties

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_casualties

[spurraider21]

cheney visited pepperdine law today

[boutons_deux]

Repug MISOGYNY news

Why Indiana’s Mike Pence is receiving some unwelcome alerts

And then there’s Indiana, where GOP state policymakers approved a policy that’s already causing problems. The Washington Post reported in late March:

One day after Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) signed a controversial bill that would block women from seeking abortions based on medical diagnoses, doctors grappled with how the measure could impact their patients.

The mandate, which takes effect July 1, bans the procedure if, among other restrictions, a woman requests it “solely” because a fetus has Down syndrome or any other disorder. She could legally obtain an abortion in the event of a lethal fetal illness – but would have to inform the state that she chose to terminate her pregnancy.

A doctor, meanwhile, could face a wrongful death lawsuit if an abortion is granted to a woman who requests one after learning about a pregnancy complication.

Some women in the Hoosier State were so unimpressed with the governor’s new law that they rallied behind something called – I kid you not – “Periods for Pence.” WRTV in Indianapolis reported:

The governor’s office has received several calls this week from women describing the details of their period. “I need to get a message to the Governor that I am on day three of my period. My flow seems abnormally heavy, but my cramps are much better,” one woman called to say.

The woman who launched this initiative, who prefers to remain anonymous, told the station, “The more I read this bill, the more vague language I found and the more loopholes, and it just seemed incredibly intrusive. So I wanted to give a voice for women who really didn’t feel like they were given any kind of input into a bill that would affect our life so much.”

As BuzzFeed’s report added, because the law includes a reporting requirement, “some women on their periods may unknowingly expel a fertilized egg and thus have a miscarriage and be potentially liable if the egg is not correctly disposed of.”

And so, to the chagrin of the governor’s staff, plenty of Indiana women – and even some Indiana men – have been contacting Pence’s office, just to keep the administration apprised on menstrual developments.

I don’t imagine this will prompt any changes to state law, but as creative avenues for political activism go, “Periods for Pence” deserves credit for breaking new ground.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-s...d=sm_fb_maddow

Repug politicians don't ing care, voters will keep Indiana down there with the nastiest of red states.

[boutons_deux]

Indiana Defines Stupidity as Religion

INDIANAPOLIS — In a history-making decision, Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana has signed into law a bill that officially recognizes stupidity as a religion.

Pence said that he hoped the law would protect millions of state residents “who, like me, have been practicing this religion passionately for years.”

The bill would grant politicians like Pence the right to observe their faith freely, even if their practice of stupidity costs the state billions of dollars.

While Pence’s action drew the praise of stupid people across America, former Arizona Governor Jan Brewer was not among them.

“Even I wasn’t dumb enough to sign a bill like that,” she said.

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/indiana-defines-stupidity-as-religion

[boutons_deux]

LePage’s callousness takes an ugly turn, even by LePage standards

Gov. Paul LePage vetoed a bill Wednesday that would allow pharmacists to dispense an anti-overdose drug without a prescription, saying that allowing addicts to keep naloxone on hand “serves only to perpetuate the cycle of addiction.”

The Legislature passed the bill “under the hammer” – or unanimously without a roll call – this month as part of lawmakers’ attempts to address Maine’s growing opioid addiction epidemic.

the Republican governor argued, “Naloxone does not truly save lives; it merely extends them until the next overdose.”

Note, this was a written statement, not an off-the-cuff comment made during a press conference or an interview. LePage actually thought about his specific position, and argued that a life-saving drug treatment that prevents overdoes “merely extends” the lives of addicts – and he’s against that.

Maine’s governor, in a rather literal sense, made the case in writing that those struggling with opioid addiction don’t have lives worth saving. If LePage is convinced these people’s lives shouldn’t be extended, practically by definition,

he’s making the case that their lives should be curtailed.

Sen. Angus King (R-Maine), himself a former governor, “asking the chain to expand the availability of the antidote. The bill got support from both law enforcement and health organizations during the legislative hearing.”

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-s...d=sm_fb_maddow


With overdose deaths on the rise, police slowly starting to carry OD antidote

Paramedics across the state last year administered more than 1,500 doses of naloxone to reverse overdoses in 1,133 patients, according to data from Maine Emergency Medical Services, a unit of the Department of Public Safety.

The number of doses paramedics have administered has steadily climbed in recent years, from 659 in 2012 to 1,128 in 2014.

http://bangordailynews.com/2016/02/0...arry-antidote/

The price of a shot of naloxone has skyrocked from $1/shot to $40/shot

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/09/10/439219409/naloxone-price-soars-key-weapon-against-heroin-overdoses

[boutons_deux]

The wrong Republican to pick a fight with Facebook



A Gizmodo report caused quite a stir this week with claims from former Facebook contract employees that the social-media behemoth suppresses conservative stories in its Trending Topics feed. Facebook has denied the allegations and noted there’s no evidence to substantiate the claims.

But Republicans are nevertheless throwing a fit. The Republican National Committee, among many others in the party, believe Facebook is “censoring” the right. “It is beyond disturbing to learn that this power is being used to silence view points and stories that don’t fit someone else’s agenda,” the RNC said in a statement yesterday, operating from the assumption that the unproven charges are true.

But one key Republican senator is doing more than just complain. NBC News reported yesterday that Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) “wants to haul Facebook employees before Congress.”

Thune is chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee – which, among other jurisdictions, oversees technology, communications and Internet issues.

“If true, these allegations compromise Facebook’s ‘open culture’ and mission ‘to make the world more open and connected,’” Thune wrote Tuesday in a sharply worded letter to Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, demanding that employees responsible for Trending Topics brief the Senate committee by May 24.

Senate Democrats were quick to point out that the Republican majority can’t be bothered

to hold a hearing on a pending Supreme Court vacancy;

GOP senators still haven’t dealt with the looming Zika threat; and

the chamber takes an alarming number of days off;

but Republicans nevertheless seem to believe “Facebook hearings are a matter of urgent national interest.”

That’s not a bad line, but given the cir stances, the Senate GOP’s bizarre sense of priorities is the least of the troubles here.

Right off the bat, it’s difficult to understand how Congress has any oversight responsibilities towards a private social-media company.

I haven’t the foggiest idea if Facebook puts its thumb on the scales to help the left with Trending Topics – the evidence is thin, at best, based on the word of anonymous contractors – but let’s say for the sake of conversation that the allegations are 100% accurate. Then what?

How, exactly, would federal lawmakers justify intervening in Facebook’s ideological practices?

Indeed, since when does the Senate care about media companies that may or may not have political preferences? John Thune says he’s concerned about Facebook’s “culture” and the integrity of its mission statement, but again, how in the world is that any of his business?

Isn’t the Republican model based on the idea that the free market should decide and if online consumers don’t like Facebook’s “culture,” we can take our clicks elsewhere?

But even more striking still is Thune’s uniquely weak position. When the South Dakota Republican became Congress’ leading opponent of net neutrality,

Thune made the case that any political interference in how the Internet operates is inherently unacceptable.

Worse, in 2007, Thune railed against the “Fairness Doctrine,” arguing at the time,

“I know the hair stands up on the back of my neck when I hear government officials offering to regulate the news media and talk radio to ensure fairness. I think most Americans have the same reaction.”

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-s...d=sm_fb_maddow



South ing Dakota, with two Senators for 900K people.

[boutons_deux]

Republicans get serious about impeachment, but not Obama’s

The Washington Post reported yesterday:

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) introduced a resolution on Wednesday to censure IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, raising the stakes in the GOP war against the tax collector days before a hearing on whether to impeach him.

The four-page resolution seeks Koskinen’s resignation or removal by President Obama and calls on the IRS chief to forfeit his federal pension.

Chaffetz, the far-right chairman of the House Oversight Committee, explained in a statement yesterday, “I view censure as a precursor to impeachment.” He added a few weeks ago, “My foremost goal is impeachment and I’m not letting go of it.”

No, of course not. That might be responsible.

By any sane metric, the idea of congressional impeachment against the IRS commissioner is bonkers. House Republicans are apparently still worked up about an IRS “scandal” that doesn’t exist, and though Koskinen wasn’t even at the agency at the time of the alleged wrongdoing, GOP lawmakers want to impeach him because they disapprove of his handling of the imaginary controversy.

Given that the year is half over, Koskinen won’t be in the job much longer – he’ll likely leave office when the Obama administration wraps up – and there’s no credible reason to believe the Senate will remove the IRS chief from office, why bother with impeachment? Politico reported something interesting yesterday:

Two weeks ago, in a closed-door meeting with Paul Ryan, Reps. Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows gave the speaker an ultimatum: They would force a House vote to impeach the IRS commissioner — unless he allowed the Judiciary Committee to take action against John Koskinen instead.

The two founding members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus had been working behind the scenes for well over a year to take down Koskinen for accusations that he obstructed a congressional investigation. GOP leaders and senior republicans, however, had never been keen on the idea, fearing it was ultimately futile and that the spectacle would backfire on Republicans.

Right-wing lawmakers would not, however, take no for answer. Jordan and Meadows vowed to force an impeachment vote onto the floor unless House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) signed off an impeachment hearing in the Judiciary Committee, and the Republican leader relented. The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

But given the fact that Koskinen hasn’t actually committed any impeachable offenses, it’s hard not to get the impression that many House Republicans want to impeach someone, anyone, just for the sake of being able to say they impeached someone.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-s...d=sm_fb_maddow

Repug MISgovernance, what's not to ridicule?