Midday Open Thread

• One of Bill Maher’s best New Rules. The most important quote is, “This is the question the Right has to answer. Do you want smaller government with less handouts or do you want do you want a low minimum wage because you cannot have both. If Coronel Sanders isn’t going to pay the lady behind the counter enough to live on, then Uncle Sam has to. And I for one is getting a little tired of helping highly profitable companies pay their workers.”

  

• Vermont is on the correct track to take care of the healthcare of their citizens.
  

  As states open insurance marketplaces amid uncertainty about whether they’re a solution for health care, Vermont is eyeing a bigger goal, one that more fully embraces a government-funded model.

  The state has a planned 2017 launch of the nation’s first universal health care system, a sort of modified Medicare-for-all that has long been a dream for many liberals.

• This is the classic example of how Republicans lie to Americans on Obamacare. Is this ethical or moral?
  

  One of the new talking points by the GOP is that Healthcare.gov violates HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ). Carol Costello effectively showed that the Republican attacks were unfounded. … She also proves that the GOP is oblivious to facts even when provided.

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  New OTK post It’s about not wanting people to vote: Why take us back to the 1950s when we can go all the way b… http://t.co/Q4AnnnFDkR

  — offthekuff (@offthekuff) October 27, 2013

   

• I do not remember folks stoned on marijuana harming folks. Alcohol anyone? This is a pleasantly unsurprising article.
  

  But at a time when polls show widening public support for legalization — recreational marijuana is about to become legal in Colorado and Washington, and voter initiatives are in the pipeline in at least three other states — California’s 17-year experience as the first state to legalize medical marijuana offers surprising lessons, experts say.

  Warnings voiced against partial legalization — of civic disorder, increased lawlessness and a drastic rise in other drug use — have proved unfounded.

• How can a poor state that depends on government handouts think it has anything in common with the GOP? Don’t they realize they are the despised 47%?
  

  Ordinary West Virginians used to look to Washington with something close to reverence. It was a partner in good times, a lifeline in bad ones, a powerful ally against the big corporations that came for its coal and timber. By some measures, West Virginia relies more on federal money than any other state.

  But increasingly, it also has become an extreme example of the hostility that shows up in every national poll when people are asked how they feel about the federal government. Many here now speak of Washington as an enemy that threatens their economy and their way of life, that traps them into dependency.

• Shopping while black is real.

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• Excellent article by Jonathan Bernstein on the GOP Obamacare Sabotage.
  

  … it’s worth noting that whatever their own responsibility for what’s gone wrong, the White House shares responsibility with the Republicans who have spent three years actively attempting to undermine the law. I’m not talking about repeal votes, which (while silly after a while) were totally legitimate, or about running against the program in subsequent elections, which was again entirely fair. No, I’m talking about actions designed — usually openly — not to make the law work better in their view, but to make it harder for the law to work well.

• This DailyKOS article must be on everyone’s Facebook page and Twitter feed. Thank you Ubiquitous A.
  

  Does the Healthcare.gov website have issues? Yes, more issues than a virtual magazine stand. However, I’m getting more than a bit frustrated with the narrow focus on what hasn’t been working because there ARE portions of the website that work quite well and could be helping millions right now get started on collecting the information they need so that they can get enrolled.

  So, in the interest of promoting a solution, please forward this information far and wide, because there IS a way to get enrolled in the Affordable Care Act healthcare exchanges, and part of that includes very functional portions of the Healthcare.gov website.

  Here are the steps: …

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  “A man is worked on by what he works on. He may carve out his circumstances, but his circumstances will carve him out as well.” F. Douglass

  — Khary Lazarre-White (@KLWspeaks) October 27, 2013

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