Some Informative Cites

I'm going through some of my "wonk" sites. I'm sure, if you've read some of my posts, that many people have an image of me as someone who is peering into her screen, huddled over her laptop, maybe covered in a hooded blanket, "capey" thing, mumbling about those stupid cons...ok, I may be mumbling, but there rest is not me...really.....but today, I'm cleaning out my bookmarks, cuz, you know if you do something mundane that you can focus on, you may stay a bit more calm...Anyways...
I decided to share some of the sites I use when trying to find out stuff. The best electorate is a knowledgeable electorate...much harder to be hoodwinked, or just plain lied to if you know where to find information.
First the National Priorities Project. This is a federal budget data project that was developed by very wonky people to be used by normal people to look up the impact of federal dollars(and other issues) in their state. On the home page, there is a quick start guide which makes it very easy to get information that you could find useful.
Did you know that Darryl Issa(CA, R) is the richest congressman? That includes both the house and senate. Or that Ron Johnson(WI, R) received over $10 million in outside income? If you want to know where the money is, who has the money and who received the most money from...errrmmmm constituents, go to Open Secrets -- this site has any monetary information available about congress, executive branch, judicial income, along with information on what senator has the most earmarks in bills, which PAC/lobbying firms receive the largest earmarks--very interesting, also, very aggravating.
The Census bureau has any and all information available on our population and business. Did you know that the population of older people(over 65) has grew the fastest since the last census(in 2000)? Of course that is us baby boomers again....but there is much more information than just that tidbit and I encourage you to use it.
One that I've found very helpful when trying to explain or understand the Affordable Care Act or find information about health care in my area is the Healthcare site that's been set up by the Government. Yes, it gives actual honest truth about ObamaCare, among other information.
Of course, I do read Crain's Business and then take my shower. A bit too much "pity the corporation" for me, but usually there are good articles on how the "other side" feels.
There is the Responsible Budget Coalition for Illinois. Although their Facebook page seems to be kept up better, the website is usually where to go when things are "happening" in Illinois.
Then, there is the website by the Community Media Workshop that not only has news, but webinars, brown bag seminars, training center--community based news and no corporate media.
So those are my less known sites that I use(besides TPM, HuffPo, Think Progress . If you have a chance(or you know you're gonna have to deal with some rad right family/aquaintences), get some real data! Good luck.

Illinois pols say they made bold tough decisions--AGAINST poor kids, the disabled and SENIOR CITIZENS

Well well well...the Illinois general assembly, along with the gov, say they made "bold, tough" decisions by attacking the disabled and senior citizens...ok, they don't say the attack part, but they'd be more honest.
In this last session, they've ended IllinoisCareRX, cut medicaid, attacked State retirees health insurance and are  aiming for my pension next. They would already have it, but the democrats and republicans got into a hissy match and stomped out of session before they could snatch away parts of our pension.
Now, the assembly is just so sorry about making gramma having to choose between electricity and medication, but decisions must be made for the GREATER good...psst...Mr. Cullerton? Madigan? Cross? Rodagno? When you say that? Please realize that I'm NOT THAT STUPID!!!
I guess I could think that all of you are that stupid...or that greedy...ok, greedy over stupid, but did you even pay attention to what you were doing? Do you know what the ramifications are of your actions?
First, Medicaid "reform" or middle class/senior destruction. The changes in Medicaid* which were touted as much needed include:

• Ending the IllinoisCareRX program -- drops drug coverage for 180,000 senior citizens. Yes, ObamaCare does help some of these citizens since ObamaCare gets rid of the doughnut hole, but the doughnut hole isn't gone until 2020 and the people that used this program had already had an income of under $19,000 per year; saves $72,000
• Family Care for Adults --  reduce eligibility to those adults with covered kids to 133% of poverty level and eliminates care for caretakers/adults. This affects about 26,000 citizens...this affects the working poor/lower middle class. We are taking away the ability of parents to get health insurance from the state...when their employer(and yes, I'm calling out mallwart, homedespot and other big box stores) doesn't offer affordable insurance without caveats; saves $50,000.
• Eliminate adult dental, chiropractic, podiatry, group psychotherapy...there is "emergency" adult dental, but does that cover a tooth that needs a root canal and is painful?  I know I missed a couple of days because of that--and I was lucky, I had a union to back me; saves $56,000.
• Limit adult optical(every other year), occupational/physical therapy to 20 visits per year--the optical is not my issue, but the PT? the OT? When I had my knee surgery, it took more than 20 visits before I was OK...now, think about someone who has a stroke? Only 20 visits? That's deplorable; saves $18,000. 
• Adopt policy to not pay for other care services when citizen is in hospice...this one hit home. Last year my mother was sent from a nursing home to the hospital(due to an infection) to hospice and then, after less than a week, we were told she was to go back to the nursing home(and she's still alive)...if medicaid hadn't paid for her bed, we would have had to scramble to find another one; saves $3,000
• *****Reduce home health services; saves $2,000 and how many people will have to go into nursing homes if they can't get home health care???? And how much more will that cost????
• Limit medication to 4 perscriptions per month(need prior approval for more); saves $180,000...hmm...ok, I understand that some people shop doctors, shop 'scripts...BUT...on the other hand...a person has asthma--2 'scripts(an inhaler and a "stableizer") hypertension(one for blood pressure and usually one diauretic) and oh...lung issues, heart issues, HRT, anxiety, depression, other mental health issues, diabetes!!!! People on Medicaid don't go to the doctor until they absolutely have to, which usually means more care is needed, not less.
• Cuts to Hospice support
• Changing asset verification for spouses...I'd love to agree on this one, but I am sure that the only ones that will be caught in this net are the ones not rich enough to hire good attorneys...if you think I'm just blowing smoke, I know people in my area that brag about how they've already hid their parents assets...10 years before there's an issue!
• Cuts to Nursing home Care, so...after the state cuts home health care(see **** bullet point), the state is cutting nursing home care?!?!?!?!?!
• Reduce advance imaging, cardiac imaging, pain management, back surgery(some of it dealing with managed care/care coordination); saves approximately $20,000. Again, part of this I agree with...too many doctors will push up the bill by adding more tests, but on the other hand, Illinois has cut chiropractic care and now wants to limit back surgery???
• Denying pediatric palliative care. For those who don't want to hit the link, Pediatric Palliative care is for children that are either terminal or chronically ill.
• Reduce some provider rates by 2.7%; saves $240,000--this does not include doctors...but...it doesn't spell out, in laymen(citizen) terms, who this will affect.

But, other issues were not addressed, how about actual bold/brave decisions such as:
Make corporations pay their fair share! Two Thirds of Illinois corporations pay no state income tax! But the only thing I ever hear on the tv is how high Illinois' tax rate is and its running corporations out of the state! So, they're trying to find a state that will pay THEM????? Can we just say the truth-they're greedy bastards. One very good post by Curtis Black(Truth Out) brings up some very good points about how horrifically biased Illinois tax structure is towards wealthy/corporations. Although Illinois has a so-called flat tax which is regressive by nature, we've also grabbed a bunch of loopholes/deductions from the federal tax code that benefits the upper class more so than middle or lower.
Raise revenue by:

• Getting rid of the Single Sales Factor There is a very good explanation of this procedure on page 4 & 5 of the Closing Corporate Loopholes,Bolstering Illinois Budget by the Good Jobs First organization 
• Getting rid of certain deduction which allow for dividend paid by foreign corporations to US parent corporations located in Illinois(this costs about $400 million annually) and the reduces tax bills for Illinois corporations that produce in other states(about $200 million). 
• Getting rid of Accelerated depreciation it does what it says. It allows businesses to take a higher percentage of depreciation on business machines/supplies. This would bring in $300 million annually.
• Getting rid of the Retailer's Discount on Sales Tax. This would bring in over $100 million a year! As I've said in previous posts, computers are the norm in retail business...in fact most registers I've worked on keeps a running balance on cash/credit and tax for the day...its time to end this welfare to wall mart(kept $9M on this in FY11)...and home depot....and menards....and so on and so on. This would had up to a couple of hundred Million annually.
• Oil Company subsidies...what? in Illinois???? Yep, oil companies get a $75 million tax break! 

OH LOOK, I've just brought in a couple of billion dollars without it being very painful for the Citizens of Illinois! 

So, to our General Assembly, Governor, and other governmental executives--this is bold and brave. What you did with the Medicaid bill? That was shameful. Sure, attack little kids, the disabled and old people; the first two categories don't vote and the last one will die off...hopefully quickly--and with the measures you just shoved through, in all probability will be their future...which is very sad, considering Illinois is one of the wealthiest states in the country.

* all monies saved in the smash Medicaid bill are in millions of dollars

Darryl Issa channeling Joe McCarthy on Fast & Furious non issue

Car thief Darryl Issa(and the person of interest in the arson of his own building) has decided that even tho the attorney general has given congress over 7600 pages(wow...that's more than the health care bill that republicons couldn't read), that's not enough...anyway not enough to keep it in the news so the republicons can gain some ground on a Bush approved action that turned bad...like most of Bush's ideas.
Fast and Furious was a bad idea. It was a bad idea under Bush(called Gun Walking then) and it was a bad idea under Obama(even with a "hipper" name, still a bad idea). That being said, Issa keeps bringing it back into the news by throwing out little sparkly tidbits about how HIS committee(the House Oversight and Government Reform) is going to indict Holder for contempt.....and  6 weeks or so earlier....HIS committee is so horribly disgusted that this was allowed that he must issue a press release, since the media has dropped the story again.
So, what is the story of Fast and Furious? Well, first some history. The program has been around since at 2006, this being revealed in a briefing authored by Michael Mukasey to Pres. Bush discussing the failed attempts of their version which allowed illegally bought guns from the US into Mexico, then to track where the weapons found a home. This stupid idea began through ATF(Alcohol, Firearms & Tobacco), seems like someone watched robocop way too many times. Mukasey stressed the importance of having U.S. and Mexican officials to work together, instead of it being only a U.S. operation. This necessity was never initiated, and the guns were "lost" until one found its way in the murder of a border patrol officer...in 2009 and THAT become a big deal, not that it shouldn't, but since this clandestine affair began under the republicon regime, why won't Issa subpoena Mukasey? Nope...just Holder.
In fact, under Holder, these idiots that started this program have either lost their jobs or were outright fired(including a former ATF director, former us attorney), but Issa has decided to use this to embarrass Holder--Issa hasn't found any way to tie this to Holder, he has now unlawful subpoenas which since they ain't legal, Holder's basically said, don't have to...and THAT's the premise of Issa's witch hunt and a contempt charge. 
The right is now screaming for a "special prosecutor"...oh, yes, let's waste money for something that isn't needed, something that didn't work under Clinton(remember Starr???? What a joke) just so Issa and Cronyn(the one that set up the clandestine deal for Ensign's lover and husband) can keep up the false controversy.
But, there are a couple of other angles here...does the right feel they can now get back at the Democratic Party for bringing down Attorney General Gonzalez? Remember, the congress did get him to resign...of course he was illegally purging any attorneys that wouldn't assist in his office wide witch hunts, but facts are just liberal icky things.
Or is it due to AG Holder's recent demand to Gov. "convicted felon" Rick Scott to cease and desist his illegal voter purge? Rick Scott has said he will keep purging voters, even tho the Justice Department rendered a decision stating that it is against the law in...wait for it...Florida! Florida's law states that no voter purges can happen within 90 days of an election and Florida's real primary is August 11, with the general election being November 6. Oops.
So why do I compare this to McCarthy? Joe McCarthy was a drunk. And a drunk with power and felt his paranoia was the american way...and he had help. One of his biggest helpers was a B movie actor by the name of Ronald Reagan. So, Darrell Issa, an alleged 'roid rage user, is looking for bogeyman in the same way that McCarthy did...and, when history looks back, he will look even worse than Joe McCarthy...I just hope that we, the American people, can see and understand what's going on before we decide.

Walker's Lies to the governor's mansion

So, the aftermath of Scott Walker's win is what? That Wisconsin citizens are just fine with no collective bargaining? That Wisconsin citizens think that its just fine to cut public education? To sell public lands/utilities? No, I don't think so....
First why did Walker win? Obviously, he doesn't care about the Wisconsin people, How did Walker win? Well, that's a bit more interesting....
First, Walker outspent Tom Barrett 8:1...and that don't count a bunch of other money that was in the shadows...like the money that had people wearing signs( signs saying that Barrett was a baby killer/immoral/approved of gay marriage, you know, those so-called values that the right scares people with), Walker minions would pay $100 per sign to have home owners put them in their yard(Barrett signs didn't come with that dividend), and then there were the commercials....NRA sponsored an ad stating that Barrett wanted to take away hunters' rifles(specially deer rifles--BIG FAT LIE), other ads about Barrett hating babies and loving gays...
Yes, money made a difference, but there were some other issues as well:

• Walker lied about his "gain" of thousands of jobs since he took over when the truth is that Wisconsin is 51st in job recovery in the nation(and has lost over 10,000 jobs). Although Tom Barrett and his staff came out and said it was a lie(well, he prolly used the old, "misspoke" quote), Walker was not challenged by the main stream media. 
• Many people thought that Walker didn't deserve to be recalled because, as far as they knew, he hadn't done anything wrong, of a criminal nature and were somewhat worried that recall elections could become...umm...trendy. If someone didn't like what happened at the real election, they'd just come up with millions of $$ and fight it. OK, that's a bit of sarcasm, but I just couldn't help myself. Of course, the average Wisconsin voter hadn't been following the "John Doe" state and federal investigation. They might just end up with dingbat Kleefish as governor.
• Because of the "new" voter laws(that Walker and the republicons rammed thru), students did not vote in the same amount as is usual(and you know those kiddies...they vote liberal more than not). The new law states that you must live in your residence for 28 days, rather than the 10 previously. Five of the largest universities dismissed classes 10-21 days before the recall which left many of them disenfranchised(couldn't vote). Marquette University did make arrangements that students could come back and vote and they had a very good turnout, but in reality, if that's a 2-3 hour drive for someone just to vote and then turn around and go home? How many people are going to be able to do that? Another interesting fact: the Walker campaign stalled the recall process by three weeks back in January when they said they were trying to decide if or when they would challenge the signatures--just enough time to screw those students....hmm......

Also, many voters, when asked, said they made their mind up in May...and at that time, the Dems were still in the primary stage.  I'm conflicted about this. Part of me feels that its important to allow the voters to choose their candidate...OTOH, we also knew that there were dirty tricks on the other side--the right had "fake" dems running in primaries(for state general assembly), we knew that time was short...couldn't we just have the state dem association...just this once(or for this type of craziness) get all the candidates together and choose one?!?!?!? Republicons do it often enough, sometimes we need to just act together, instead of acting like cats chasing some shiny feathery thing. 
So, how much effect will the recall election have on November, probably not much. This election did show us how votes can be bought...thank you SCOUTUS and Citizens United--but considering how much money was spent, Barrett wasn't beat by that much(considering he only had about 13-15% of the money in the race, he should have only received 13-15% of the vote) Racine flipped red to blue(yes, I know there is a recount going on) and Obama won the "exit polls" over Romney 5:1 and, in California, Orly Taints only received 3% of votes in her bid for U. S. Senator. What does that mean? That there are only 113,000 crazy bigots in California!