Thursday, May 7, 2009

Health Insurance Denied

Still waiting to hear back from Blue Cross on why they deemed me unworthy of health insurance.
I'm reminded highly of this post by Miriam on Feministing:
The bottom line is that we have no protections against the arbitrary and discriminatory policies of the health insurance companies.
I wonder when President Obama will live up to his many promises on health care reform, and work to require Health Insurance Companies to cover pre-existing conditions.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Why are Democrats Supporting Arlen Specter?

Arlen Specter, in his own words (emphasis mine):

At several other points, Specter did lay out areas in which he had "diverged materially from the Republican line," including raising the minimum wage, the stimulus package and abortion rights. But he went to great lengths to insist that he did not, as reported, tell Democratic leadership or the White House that he would be a loyal party member.

"I did not say," he told host David Gregory, "I would be a loyal Democrat. I did not say that."

The Democratic Party should not support this man's run for office. We should all support a challenger. Perhaps Joe Sestak?

Pet Issues and Condescending Centrists: The Third Way

Matt Bennet, Vice President of tact for the centrist group The Third Way, has a zinger of a quote in this AP article (emphasis mine):

But the process to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter could pump new oxygen into national debates over abortion, immigration, minority rights, limits to privacy and other matters that often animate large grassroots organizations, which have been comparatively quiet in recent months.

"There's no doubt these debates are coming back," said Matt Bennett, vice president of the centrist Democratic group Third Way. They might create more noise than suspense, he said, because there is little doubt that the Democratic-dominated Senate will confirm Obama's eventual choice. Liberal activists will "fall in line" even if they are not entirely satisfied with the administration's progress on their pet issues, Bennett said.

Fuck that! We are not "falling in line" if Obama replaces a liberal judge with a mushy centrist who will collapse on essential issues such as consumer rights, gay rights, women's rights or human rights. The President will find that as he continues to adopt Bush administraiton positions, he will begin adopting the popularity of the former President as well.

Iran Executes Innocent Woman Convicted as a Child

Iran hung a 23 year old girl for murder. A few facts stand out about this case (Huffpost, emphasis mine):
Authorities executed the 23-year-old woman Friday in northern Iran without informing her lawyer or allowing the family to be present, said the lawyer, Mohammad Mostafaei. She was 17 at the time the crime was committed, in 2003.

...

The prisoner executed Friday, Delara Darabi, initially pleaded guilty to killing her father's cousin, but later retracted her confession and said her boyfriend carried out the killing. She told a judge that she had initially confessed because her boyfriend told her that, as a minor, she would not be executed and she could save him from being put to death, her lawyer said.

Her boyfriend, who was 19 at the time of the killing, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for complicity in murder.

...

Mostafaei said the court did not seriously consider his arguments in the woman's defense.

For example, he said, Darabi was left-handed, while all the evidence suggests the crime was committed by someone who was right-handed.

An innocent girl took the fall for her boyfriend. He gets 10 years, she is killed.
The lawyer said Darabi called her parents just moments before the execution. He quoted her as saying, "Oh, Mother, I see the hangman's noose in front of me. They are going to execute me. Please save me."
This is murder, plain, simple, brutal. The US State Department (contact info) should call Iran out on this. Iran deserves to be shamed in front of the international community.

Framing

I find the practice of framing to be a bit annoying, so I've instituted a small script to close frames automatically. Hopefully this makes reading this blog a more enjoyable experience.