Long after everyone has given up on any effort to explain in any detail the Wisconsin voter ID law the U.S. Supreme Court allowed to go into effect today, it will be another Famous Victory for Scott Walker. Since SCOTUS did not offer any explanation for this decision, the line between permissible and impermissible ID schemes remains somewhat vague, though 17 states have enacted new requirements since Indiana's first cleared the judicial review hurdle in 2008. Negative federal court action on Texas's statute could still force a substantive review by SCOTUS. But the wind is definitely blowing the wrong way for voting rights, particularly now that Republicans have gotten by the 50th anniversary of the Selma police riot without having to make any new commitments to do anything other than what their partisan interests dictate.

And that means the Wisconsin law can fully take its place, without an asterisk, as a jewel in the crown of Scott Walker's conservative policy legacy, and another payoff for Republicans who figure he can duplicate his success nationally. It only adds zest to their enjoyment that this is happening to the state once famed for its progressivism.

Her family has a long sad history of women dying of breast/ovarian cancer. Her chances of getting the same cancers were very high. Thus, the surgeries.

WASHINGTON -- An ambitious agreement by Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to fix a major funding gap in Medicare and make some separate long-term cuts appears in good shape to pass the House.
...
The legislation would eliminate the "doc fix" problem that has become one of Washington's most despised rituals. The existing Medicare formula for paying doctors imposes steep annual cuts that Congress has overridden for more than a decade. Doctors face a 21 percent cut if no "fix" is enacted by April 1.

At a cost of roughly $210 billion, the bill replaces the "sustainable growth rate" formula to instead give doctors gradual raises while extending the Children's Health Insurance Program for two years starting in October. It includes $70 billion in offsets by making two structural changes to cut Medicare spending: force high-income seniors to kick in more for their care and reduce spending on supplemental Medigap plans, specifically "first dollar" coverage. link

Those "structural changes" in the real world known as cuts to Medicare were a big part of the Cat Food Commission recommendations.

First dollar Medigap coverage (Plan F) is one of the most popular plans in Medicare. Seniors who choose this plan already pay a high monthly premium for this coverage. Seniors with serious or life threatening illnesses who need ongoing treatment will see a reduction in income each year if they have to meet high deductibles on top of insurance premiums. The income reduction will increase each year as costs continue to increase. This is just one more cost shift from the insurance industry to the patient.

Reduce Medigap coverage and make it just a more costly Medicare Advantage plan and you will soon privatize Medicare.

Charlottesville police found no "substantive basis" to support the gang rape accusation against UVA's Phi Kappa Psi house by a woman known as "Jackie".

On CNN TV the lead investigator went on to say he's not convinced the main alleged rapist ever existed. Yet, he's still not ready to say the obvious..... "Jackie" lied.

Mordiggian 88: "Yes, unfortunately there weren't scandals about [Hetch Hetchy Reservoir] like the taking of water from the Owens Valley by Mulholland & etc., were there?"

Actually, the proposal to flood Hetch Hetchy Valley for a reservoir was a big environmental scandal at the time. The battle to save that valley was the last great conservation campaign led by the legendary John Muir, who founded the Sierra Club. People across the country were genuinely appalled that the federal government would allow the desecration of national park land in such a thoughtless and shortsighted manner.

Muir ultimately lost that fight in 1913 when Congress passed the Raker Act, which authorized the City and County of San Francisco to not only dam the Tuolumne River with the construction of O'Shaughnessy Dam in Yosemite National Park, but to clear cut Hetch Hetchy Valley prior to its flooding for the reservoir, and sell off the lumber!

(John Muir died the following year, allegedly of a broken heart, although truth be told, he was pushing 80 and died of pneumonia while visiting his daughter in Los Angeles.)

In fact, the destruction of Hetch Hetchy Valley caused such a huge public outcry and backlash that Congress was subsequently compelled to pass -- and President Woodrow Wilson driven to sign into law -- the Organic Act of 1916, aka the National Parks Preservation Act.

This landmark legislation formally defined statutorily what a U.S. national park was supposed to be, and further created the National Park Service with a designated mission to prevent such a plundering of duly recognized public treasures from ever happening again.

Link

Thanks a lot Holder.

Ferguson shooting suspect confessed on hidden camera, warrant reveals

NYT