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POPSHealth Care Bill Could Face String of Legal Challenges Third, auto insurance regulation occurs at the state level. When the Congressional Budget Office considered the idea of a health insurance mandate back in 1994 under the Clinton administration, it concluded that the mandate would be "an unprecedented form of federal action." The only congressional mandate close to that was the draft, the CBO concluded. Other legal objections are emerging in the wake of a concession that Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., won for his state as a condition for his support of the health care bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid agreed to provide for full and permanent federal aid for Nebraska's expanded Medicaid population. It was only one of a slew of hand-crafted sweetheart deals for those senators who agreed to support the bill. Graham said his state could file an equal rights suit under the Constitution. The Constitution calls for "equal protection" of all citizens.
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POPSStates Of Consciousness The third state of consciousness is being awake. This is the state most of us are in most of the time. Measurable brain activity during the waking state of consciousness is quite different when compared with brain activity during both sleep and dreaming. The fourth state of consciousness occurs when we actually glimpse the soul, when we transcend, when we become, even for a fraction of a moment, absolutely still and quiet and become aware of the observer inside us. This state of consciousness occurs during meditation, when we experience the gap, that quiet moment between our thoughts. The fifth state is called cosmic consciousness, the sixth state divine consciousness, and the seventh state unity consciousness. Adapted from The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire, by Deepak Chopra (Three Rivers Press).
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POPSDripping Irony, Illinois Can't House Its Own Prisoners, Welcomes GITMO Terrorists state prison in rural Illinois to be the new home for a limited number of terrorist suspects held at Guantanamo. Administration officials as well as Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin and Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn will make an official announcement at the White House. So Illinois is so broke it has prisoners, it has an empty prison, it can't afford to pay to put the inmates in the prison so it releases them and sells out. Hey ya'll remember what state our President was from? Yeah that's right Illinois. Just think, now the nation can benefit from the same leadership that Illinois politicians give their state.
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POPSLSU Tigers vs Penn State Nittany Lions - Capital One Bowl Preview The Fighting Tigers of Louisiana State University hope to get their tenth win of the season when they take on the Nittany Lions of Penn State University in the Capital One Bowl New Year's day. Les Miles hopes to improve his record in bowl games to 5-0 since taking over as Tigers head coach. In order to do so, he'll have to defeat on of the all-time greatest coaches in NCAA football history, and do so with an injury-riddled squad that is down to it's fourth running back on the depth chart. The top three Tigers running backs (Charles Scott, Richard Murphey and Keiland Williams) are all out for the season with various injuries. Penn State is hoping to improve upon the Big 10's record in major bowl games, including blowout losses by Ohio State in back-to-back BCS Championship games against Florida and LSU.
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POPSWishing Nevadans A Merry Christmas With A Smile on His Face And A Knife in Our Backs
business leaders, and healthcare professionals, the Senate majority seems intent on cramming this monstrosity down the American people’s throats.” “Under no circumstances did I have anything to do with Senator Nelson’s compromise,” Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman said in a written statement. “The responsibility for this special deal lies solely on the shoulders of Senator Ben Nelson.” Heineman urged Nelson to reconsider his support for the overall health care bill and said his state expects “a fair deal, not a special deal. Governors all across America are troubled by this unfunded Medicaid mandate. If the U.S. Senate plans to address the unfunded mandates issue, all states must receive fair and equal treatment.” (Nebraska governor to Ben Nelson: Kill the bill http://bit.ly/4RZgZp) According to a newspaper reporter, even Senator John McCain called Reid’s deals, “Bernie Madoff gimmicks.” Senator Reid himself admitted he had “taken care of” enough senators when he was quoted
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POPSStatement by the National Right to Life Committee On The New Reid "manager's amendment" to H.R. 3590 This seems to envision a system under which the OPM director would administer multi-state plans that cover elective abortions, and perhaps even possess authority to require such plans to cover elective abortions, as long as the director also ensured that there was one plan that did not cover abortions (except types of abortions also funded by the federal Medicaid program). This would be a sharp break from the policy that has long governed the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, which is also a program administered by OPM, under which private plans are completely prohibited from covering elective abortions if they wish to participate in the program. The Reid manager's amendment contains a new section providing that a state "may elect to prohibit abortion coverage in qualified health plans offered through an Exchange in such State if such State enacts a law to provide for such prohibition.
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POPSDirty Harry Reid’s "ABORTION FIX" IS NOT FIXED ~ “Manager’s Amendment" that cover elective abortions. The new language does include a “state opt-out” provision if a state passes a law to prohibit insurance coverage of abortion, but it’s a sham because it does nothing to prevent one state’s tax dollars from paying for elective abortions in other states. A majority of Americans believe that health care plans should not be mandated to provide elective abortion coverage, and a majority of Americans do not believe government health care plans should include abortion coverage. Currently, federal appropriations bills include language known as the Hyde Amendment that prohibits the use of federal funds to pay for elective abortions under the Medicare and Medicaid programs, while another provision, known as the Smith Amendment, prohibits federal funding of abortion under the federal employees’ health benefits plan .
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POPSHiding the significance of Houston electing an openly gay Mayor The truth is this: Houston's mayoral seat was held by a Democrat before, and a Republican didn't even have a snowball's chance of winning it this time around ... All the cities of Texas voted for John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008. It's not that Texas isn't dominated by conservatives on a statewide level. It absolutely is. But narratives about the conservative monolith are not only unfair, but they have the potential to create long-term damage, too. If the liberal presence in Texas is ignored and written off, it won't get the support and the hope it needs to keep plugging. And right now, as the state's demographics start to move more towards urbanity and racial diversity, liberals need all the support they can get to seize the moment and turn the traditionally red state blue . Demographic trend across the United States: Republicans only win in white-dominated rural and suburban areas. Read clip in full @ source
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POPSStates Reassert Sovereignty With Legislation September 21, 2009 Although the resolutions are not legally binding, Tenth Amendment Center founder Michael Boldin said they “serve notice” that states will no longer automatically enforce federal mandates in areas they believe the central government has no constitutional authority. Montana’s first-in-the-nation law reasserting state authority with the regulation of firearms manufactured and sold within state boundaries was soon followed by a similar law in Tennessee. Officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have already sent letters to gun dealers and federal permit holders in both states telling them to ignore the state law. A court battle is next. Nearly 20 other states have similar legislation in the works, including directives to their governors to order National Guard troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Next year, Arizona will have a state constitutional amendment on the ballot that allows residents to opt out of any national health care program.
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POPSPOLICE STATE People have a right to move without being harassed and without this nonsense.
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POPSMove to National ID Cards Delayed according to the American Civil Liberties Union. About half the states oppose the mandate, or have said they would never comply. Beginning Jan.1, the law was supposed to have blocked anybody from boarding a plane using their driver’s license as ID if their resident state did not comport with the Real ID program. But the Department of Homeland Security is set to extend, for at least a year, the deadline of the Real ID program that has raised the ire of privacy advocates. Homeland Security officials point to the 9/11 hijackers’ ability to get driver’s licenses in Virginia using false information as justification for the proposed $24 billion program. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation suggest the plan is misguided, and might pave the way for requiring such IDs to vote or purchase prescription drugs. “Our biggest concern is that it is a national ID card. It changes the relationship between the citizen and the state,”
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POPSNo Matter What "Mr. Burgess, who has lived and worked for most of his 96 years in Wyoming and Nebraska as a hired farmhand and in later years as a machinist, still drives his truck almost every day into Torrington, Wyo., about eight miles from his home, for a hot lunch at the senior center. But his driver’s license expires in January, and he is deeply worried that he might not pass the test this time around. Mr. Burgess gets housekeeping assistance under a state program that helps older people stay in their homes and out of nursing care. But if he could not socialize in town, he said, he would be lost. “I might be on roller skates,” said Mr. Burgess, still cowboy-thin in cinched-up Levis, his booming outdoor voice filling his home on a recent snowy afternoon. He glanced around the tiny, cluttered living room — the coal stove, the broken television, the walls lined with pictures of his wife, Laura, who died just over a year ago after more than 60 years of marriage."
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POPSBCBS Sabotage Health Care Reform at State Level Blue Cross Blue Shield speaks with forked tongue. Look for your state in list below: " Part of the reason the BCBS Association has claimed that it opposes the reform bill in its current form is because of what it perceives as a weak individual mandate. However, the BCBS Association-supported ALEC campaign depicts the very notion of an individual mandate as "anti-freedom." So either way the Senate acts, BCBS will be able to trash the bill and try to kill reform. According to ALEC, constitutional amendments have been filed or pre-filed in Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Legislation is being discussed in 12 other states: Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Montana, Tennessee, and Utah. A bill passed the Arizona legislature in June, and will go to a public referendum in 2010."
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POPSWhat's the Difference Between a "Welfare State" and a "Welfare Society? The social market economy seeks a market economic system, rejecting both socialism and laissez-faire capitalism. The system is universal, covering everyone. In Denmark the government even has a constitutional duty to ensure all citizens can have a home and enough to eat. Health care and social security ensure a high minimum living standard for all citizens regardless of their economic situation. The free education maximizes the social mobility, and strives to make it possible for everyone to better themselves. he Nordic model represents a ladder out of dependence (as evidenced by extremely low unemployment). he Nordic countries have strong economies, a high standard of living, low crime rates and are democracies. he Nordic welfare model is a concept that is embraced by all mainstream parties on both the right and left of the political spectrum in the Nordic countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_model
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POPSMichigan-8 year "recession" This is what happens when your reward non-production, ignore your current workers & taxpayers and favor unions, bigger government and liberal feel good legislation. And it is coming soon to the rest of the country, the national plan seems to be at least partially based on Michigan's failed course. As the confiscation of the wealthy's assets and businesses continue, those that have anything left, will LEAVE. Many other countries would be HAPPY to take a much smaller share of the pie. Which is what is happening in Michigan. 100% of nothing is nothing, and that is what we get when we tax jobs out of existence.
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POPSGay marriage's inevitability in doubt To make the case for gay marriage, protests are counterproductive, persuasion is what’s necessary. Proposition 8 won because we, and I say "we" because I am part of the gay community, failed to make the case why gay marriage is good for society. The gay community needs NEW LEADERS for Christ's sake. We don't need useless morons like Perez Hilton and Adam Lambert opening up their mouths and spewing stupid nonsense. You don't make progress by screaming and yelling at the other side. We should see a housecleaning at gay organizations and the selection of new leaders who refuse to demonize social conservatives, but seek to persuade them instead. Angry protests from the lot of vicious queens is useless. And until they wake up and understand this, forget about it.
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POPSThe Obama Recovery In Full Effect: Deficits Running 25% Higher Than Highest Estimates If the deficits continue to overshoot prior estimates, which they almost certainly will, the country is headed for total, hyper-inflationary meltdown: China and Japan will simply cease buying debt that can't be repaid. Oh, and recall that these totals don't even include state and local governments -- like the Blue State Utopias of California, Michigan, New York and New Jersey -- that are hemorrhaging revenues and residents as fast as they can pack their belongings, stuff them in U-Hauls and clear out for greener pastures. That deficit represents a 25% overshoot. Congratulations, Mr. President: your strategy is working. Hat tip: Denninger
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