Pole Tax

I'm wondering where the howls of outrage are from the 'right-to-lifers' in this country? Oh yeah, she was already a fully formed human, not an embryo. Nothing to see here, then.

Effing tragic.

Teen dies after insurance nixes transplant funds:

"A 17-year old died just hours after her health insurance company reversed its decision not to pay for a liver transplant that doctors said the girl needed.

Nataline Sarkisyan died Thursday night at about 6 p.m. at University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center. She had been in a vegetative state for weeks, said her mother, Hilda.

'She passed away, and the insurance (company) is responsible for this,' she said"

_______

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Nice dress, Hoover

Report: Hoover had plan for mass arrests:

"ASHINGTON - Former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had a plan to suspend the rules against illegal detention and arrest up to 12,000 Americans he suspected of being disloyal, according to a newly declassified document."

_______

How they steal elections. Fascinating article.

TPMmuckraker | Talking Points Memo | "Angry Black Man" Does GOTV:

"As Josh wrote earlier this week, I've been gobbling up the new tell-all by Allen Raymond, the former GOP consultant of New Hampshire phone jamming fame."

_______

Obama's got game.

SI.com - Writers - S.L. Price: One-on-One With Obama:

"Here's the beauty of pickup basketball: You may be a U.S. senator, a living symbol of racial healing and perhaps even the next President of the United States, but if you're gliding in for an easy layup and each point is precious, I've got no choice then, do I? You're getting hacked. So, yes, I'm hammering that arm and crashing headlong into your whippet-thin frame; and, yes, it's a foul so flagrant, so absurdly desperate, that all you can do, body buckling, is laugh. Hey, it's pickup. Everyone, even you, uses whatever he's got to win.

'Believe me,' Barack Obama says, walking to the top of the key, 'you can get shot for doing that.'"

_______

In "What the Hell is the matter with Texas news".

U.S. Disparity in Executions Grows as Texas Bucks Trend:

"This year’s death penalty bombshells — a de facto national moratorium, a state abolition and the smallest number of executions in more than a decade — have masked what may be the most significant and lasting development. For the first time in the modern history of the death penalty, more than 60 percent of all American executions took place in Texas.

_______

Seriously, 'What the hell?'

The Raw Story | Texas slaps a tax on strip clubs:

"Texas, where strip clubs have given rise to Anna Nicole Smith and many other less-generously endowed performers, is about to make it more expensive to watch a little bump and grind.

In what some have dubbed the 'pole tax,' the Lone Star State will require its 150 or so strip clubs to collect a $5-per-customer levy, with most of the proceeds going to help rape victims. The tax goes into effect on New Year's Day."

______
_____
___