ACA Subsidies Upheld 6-3

ACA Subsidies Upheld 6-3

45 Comments
Suck it, you Teabags.
WASHINGTON –The still-controversial but increasingly sturdy Affordable Care Act survived a major challenge Thursday as the Supreme Court rejected claims that could have dismantled the health care plan. The court ruled 6-3 against four Virginia plaintiffs who had insisted that federal subsidies offered to offset the cost of health insurance purchased on a federal exchange operated on behalf of 34 states, including Texas, were illegal.
This utterly fraudulent, purely political case should never had made it this far.
Bernie Sanders packs thousands into a Denver gymnasium

Bernie Sanders packs thousands into a Denver gymnasium

8 Comments
Sanders is catching fire. My takeaways below:
Bernie Sanders, who’s emerged as Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, drew an estimated crowd of more than 5,000 people to the University of Denver on Saturday night for what appeared to be one of the largest political rallies of the 2016 cycle. Sanders, the self-described democratic socialist senator from Vermont, delivered a fiery speech in a packed university gymnasium, where he decried the greed of the billionaire class, saying it is “destroying this nation.” Besides the more than 3,000 people in the gym, others listened in an adjacent atrium.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., June 24, 2015

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Weds., June 24, 2015

15 Comments
The Del-Tech stench grows fouler by the hour.  Despite the fact that no public notice was given, as required by Senate rules, the Senate Finance Commitee (illegally) met today and voted the Del-Tech Relief Act out of committee.  It's on today's agenda, just as it was on yesterday's agenda.  The difference being that only one Senate rule was violated instead of the two rules that were violated in order for it to be placed on yesterday's agenda. Make no mistake. The committee met because of what we wrote here yesterday.  They're gonna try to railroad this bill through, and every homeowner will pay w/o having any say over the so-called 'Community College Infrastructure Fund'. As Al Mascitti pointed out yesterday, this is not the first time this exact same scheme has been proposed by Del-Tech. When Lonnie George did it, he at least announced the legislation in January, which gave legislators and the public enough (or, for those of you supported it, too much) time to reject it for the blatant rip-off it was.  It's no coincidence that Mark Brainard and the bill's supporters waited until June 11 to introduce the bill and try to sneak it through w/o any public input. The bill still sucks. As Al also pointed out, tuition at Del-Tech is far below the national average, and a very modest increase in that tuition would pay for this scheme w/o bilking homeowners who have no interest in Del-Tech and have no idea they're about to be bilked. I call on many of the fine legislators who inexplicably have signed onto this bill to put the brakes on this cynical maneuver.
Good bye and good riddance to the rebel flag

Good bye and good riddance to the rebel flag

51 Comments
As a child of the 70's I have to admit that I'm a little surprised at how quickly and completely the rebel flag seems to be falling into the same untouchable category as the swastika. I didn't think we'd see the demise of the stars and bars in my lifetime. It has always been venerated by particularly showy and repugnant southern racists, but it has also been something else.
General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 23, 2015

General Assembly Post-Game Wrap-Up/Pre-Game Show: Tues., June 23, 2015

26 Comments
Sen. Patti Blevins: 1  NRA Lobbyist: 0. That's the result of one of the more unusual confrontations in recent Delaware legislative history. Unusual because it's so not 'Delaware Way'. And unusual because someone called out the NRA for lying. Also unusual because both Blevins and the lobbyist in question, Rich Armitage, do not generally court controversy. And most unusual in that the President Pro-Tem stated that Armitage "could have faced felony charges for his allegedly false testimony about closed door negotiations involving the gun rights group and the Attorney General's office over language regarding the marketing of firearm safety programs."
Monday Open Thread [6.22.15]

Monday Open Thread [6.22.15]

15 Comments
Can we please stop pretending that the modern GOP isn't a racist organization?
The leader of a white nationalist group cited in a chilling manifesto apparently written by the suspect in last week's massacre at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina donated thousands of dollars to Republican presidential candidates, campaign finance records show. The Guardian late Sunday first reported that Earl Holt III, the president of the Council of Concerned Citizens, donated to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). The Council of Concerned Citizens is a white nationalist group based in St. Louis, Missouri
This current southern iteration of the Republican party is racist. Period. It is the Nixonian/Lee Atwater/southern strategy/ party of white grievances BY DESIGN. It doesn't try to conceal or deny it, so why does the media pretend it isn't?