This is awesome!
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M - Th 11p / 10c Final Message From the White House Barack Obama Interview John McCain Interview Sarah Palin Video Funny Election Video
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Excellent article: "Broken Government: Social Security Disability Backlogs"
Image by Getty Images via Daylife The number of backlogged disability claims at the Social Security Administration (SSA) more than doubled over the past decade, with those pending at the hearing level reaching 760,800 as of October 2008, according to an agency spokesman. The spike in applicants from an aging baby boomer generation, staff cuts, and management problems all contributed to a cumbersome operation; individual cases took an average of more than 500 days to process in 2007. In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of people pursuing disability claims have been forced to wait as long as three years, with some going into bankruptcy, losing their homes, or even dying while waiting for a result. As far back as 2001, the chairman of the Social Security Advisory Board acknowledged that “unless there’s fundamental change, we will soon see disruptions of service. The Social Security agency lacks the ability to handle existing workloads, and those workloads are bound to i...
Ahhh yes, it has begun
Texas grand jury indicts Cheney, Gonzales of crime HOUSTON (Reuters) - A grand jury in South Texas indicted U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and former attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Tuesday for "organized criminal activity" related to alleged abuse of inmates in private prisons. Read full article
A Big Yay To This News
Obama Positioned to Quickly Reverse Bush Actions Stem Cell, Climate Rules Among Targets of President-Elect's Team President Bush denied California the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles. The president-elect says he will overturn that decision. Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team. A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically off...
Barack Obama: We Want a Shelter Dog...a Mutt Like Me!
Barack Obama let the dogs out Friday on his family's future presidential pooch. At his first press conference since the election, he announced the family would prefer to adopt because, "a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me. "With respect to the dog, this is a major issue," he joked. "I think it's generated more interest on our Web site than just about anything." Check out photos from Obama's First Family Album. Before picking out the dog that Obama promised to his daughters during his Tuesday night speech, he says they're still sorting out a few issues. "We have two criteria that have to be reconciled," he said. "One is that Malia is allergic, so it has to be hypoallergenic. There are a number of breeds that are hypoallergenic. "On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog, but, obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me. So whether we're going to be able to balance those two things I think i...
My favorite part...
"It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled - Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America."
It's official, Sarah Palin is an idiot
Sarah Palin: Ignorant and anti-science Posted on: October 24, 2008 10:17 PM, by PZ Myers This is too much. Sarah Palin gave a policy speech today in which she claimed that she wanted more support for children with disabilities, more tools to test for disorders, and while also decrying the expense of scientific research. Where does a lot of that earmark money end up anyway? […] You've heard about some of these pet projects they really don't make a whole lot of sense and sometimes these dollars go to projects that have little or nothing to do with the public good. Things like fruit fly research in Paris, France. I kid you not. I am appalled. This idiot woman, this blind, shortsighted ignoramus, this pretentious clod, mocks basic research and the international research community. You damn well better believe that there is research going on in animal models — what does she expect, that scientists should mutagenize human mothers and chop up baby brains...
THE most important part of last night's VP debate
Original source There was a moment in last night’s debate that sent a cold shiver down my spine. That moment was when moderator Gwen Ifill asked Sarah Palin whether she agreed with Dick Cheney’s rather extraordinary claim that the Vice President’s office is outside of the Executive Branch (truthfully, Cheney argued that it was outside the Legislative branch too , apparently occupying some nebulous and untouchable fourth branch of government). Wouldn’t you know? That pitbull with lipstick agrees with Cheney. Well, our founding fathers were very wise there in allowing through the Constitution much flexibility there in the office of the vice president. And we will do what is best for the American people in tapping into that position and ushering in an agenda that is supportive and cooperative with the president’s agenda in that position. Yeah, so I do agree with him that we have a lot of flexibility in there, and we’ll do what we have to do to administer very appropriately the plans...
'Banned' Bush Video Surfaces
This video was removed from YouTube but resurfaced later. Let's get this link out everywhere we can! Video link here Video transcript here Huffington Post article here
When Wounded Vets Come Home
By Barry Yeoman As more troops than ever are surviving the fearsome injuries of war, parents are increasingly being thrust into the role of long-term caregivers. Read full article
Are you an American? Then you MUST watch this!
Ok, it's over 5 hrs long! But it's the BEST description of why Impeach Bush should be your mantra. Here's the link.
New rule would limit insurers contact with elderly, disabled
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Agents selling private health insurance plans to the elderly and disabled would be barred from cold-calling, door-to-door solicitations and pitching their products outside hospital waiting rooms or pharmacies, under a federal rule proposed Thursday. The rule is designed to make it harder to pressure Medicare beneficiaries into signing up for insurance products they don't need or want. It essentially restricts face-to-face solicitations to those initiated by the customer. A new Medicare drug benefit began Jan. 1, 2006. Since then, participants and state insurance commissioners have complained that some agents use false information to enroll people into certain plans, particularly those offering comprehensive health insurance. "We want to make sure that beneficiaries aren't pressured into sales," said Kerry Weems, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services "In parking lots, waiting rooms and those kinds of places, a s...