Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Archive for September 2013

Marriage Equality Coming to New Jersey!

Superior Court Judge Mary Jacobson has ruled today in Garden State Equality v. Dow that same sex couples must be allowed to marry in NJ!  Marriage equality currently set to start on October 21st.  

In arguments before Jacobson in August, Lambda Legal’s lawyer, Lawrence Lustberg, said that not allowing same-sex couples to marry will have “devastating” consequences because the federal government denies a wide array of benefits to couples who are not married. He said the question is a matter of equal protection under the law and has moral overtones.

Jacobson agreed, ruling that the ineligibility of same-sex couples for federal benefits hurts them in “a wide range of contexts,” such as pension benefits, family leave protections and tax benefits.

“If the trend of federal agencies deeming civil union partners ineligible for benefits continues, plaintiffs will suffer even more, while their opposite-sex New Jersey counterparts continue to receive federal marital benefits for no reason other than the label placed upon their relationship by the state,” the judge wrote. Such unequal treatment “requires that New Jersey extend civil marriage to same-sex couples to satisfy the equal protection guarantees of the New Jersey Constitution.”

The Daily F Bomb, Friday 9/27/13

Interrogatories

It’s National Walk to Work Day. How long do you think it would take you to walk to work? Have you ever done so?

What language that you don’t speak do you wish you spoke? Why?

Have you had a garage sale, a yard sale, or a moving sale? Was it profitable?

Do you like to go to these sales (including estate sales)? Have you found any good bargains?

On voting day, how do you decide which judges to elect or retain? Do you put in a lot of research to find out which ones are good?

The Twitter Emitter

President Obama: “I love you back”

When President Obama speaks to friendly crowds, especially crowds of students, there is usually one point in the speech where someone in the crowd shouts out “I love you!”. The president answers with “I love you back!”.

Yesterday he was speaking to a crowd at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Maryland and the speech started with that exchange. His main topic was the Affordable Care Act, gearing up for the next phase on January 1, 2014 where millions of Americans will be covered under new insurance policies purchased on exchanges. The sign-up period for the new coverage starts next Tuesday, October 1 and runs through March 31, 2014. The Health Insurance Marketplace will be open for business here: Healthcare.gov.

The president’s speech (51 minutes and 32 seconds … and worth every second):



(Full transcript below the fold)

The president said to expect glitches. Lots of people say to expect glitches … it is a big program, it is a new program, and it is, unfortunately one that the administration has had to tweak on its own since the Republican House of Representatives has been unwilling to make any improvements to it. From Bloomberg News: Don’t be alarmed by Obamacare failures:

If things don’t run smoothly from the get-go, it won’t mean that this piece of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has failed. Three months will remain before coverage from insurance plans sold on the exchanges even kicks in. And there will be many months and years beyond that to smooth the wrinkles. Obamacare supporters often point to how much ironing out Medicare Part D, the prescription drug program, needed when it came into effect in 2006. Even Medicare and Medicaid have been tweaked more than 20 times since they were enacted in 1965.

President Obama made a point of mentioning that the “Republicans’ biggest fear at this point is not that the Affordable Care Act will fail. What they’re worried about is it’s going to succeed“. Indeed.

Here’s what the president said we can expect:


… Medicare and Social Security faced the same kind of criticism.  Before Medicare came into law, one Republican warned that “one of these days, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”  That was Ronald Reagan.  And eventually, Ronald Reagan came around to Medicare and thought it was pretty good, and actually helped make it better.

So that’s what’s going to happen with the Affordable Care Act.  And once it’s working really well, I guarantee you they will not call it Obamacare. (Laughter and applause.)

Here is a prediction for you:  A few years from now, when people are using this to get coverage and everybody is feeling pretty good about all the choices and competition that they’ve got, there are going to be a whole bunch of folks who say, yes, I always thought this provision was excellent.  I voted for that thing.  You watch.  

Oh, and we can also expect this … from President Obama: “I love you back”. The Affordable Care Act, dedicated to his mother who died while fighting insurance companies and worrying about paying the bills, is about caring … and it is one of the things he does best.

~

(Links to the White House Web Site on the Affordable Care Act are below the fold.)

The Other Closet: Living With the Stigma of Mental Illness

I have touched on the topic of stigma against the mentally ill before, so I’m taking bits and pieces of research from that previous diary. But I’d like to revisit it here in a slightly different way. There was a statement made in another diary the other day that brought this to mind. Someone elsewhere in the blogosphere suggested that the mentally ill should be imprisoned “just like sex offenders” until doctors could determine that they were safe for society. I’m assuming that it was not intended as it was written (I certainly hope not), but unfortunately, there are many out there who do actually think this way.

Ouch.

The Daily F Bomb, Thursday 9/26/13

Interrogatories

It’s National Good Neighbor Day. Are you a good neighbor? Do you have good neighbors?

Do you and your partner/spouse have “your song?” What is it?

Are you a bowler? What was your best score? Are you a golfer?

Has anything in your medicine cabinet expired? Have you checked lately, or do you check regularly?

The Twitter Emitter

AIDS Walk Austin – it would be Magnificent to get matched donations

The first 25 donations of “at least” $100 are matched today, so today would be a great one to make a sizable donation. AIDS Walk Austin is in less than a month – on Sunday the 20th. I’ve only raised 14% of my (admittedly crazy high) goal of $5,000, so I thought I’d share some music & ask for donations. I’d kinda like to make it to at least one thousand dollars, even if five thousand is out of reach. If you want to skip the U2 song & my babbling, you can make a donation at my AIDS Walk Austin page. This is the 26th year for the Walk & my 26th year of walking it, and I really want step things up this year. And here’s me, talking about why I’ve walked every year of the Walk:

The Daily F Bomb, Wednesday 9/25/13

Interrogatories

Have you ever run a marathon?

Have you ever participated in a charity “walk” or “ride”? Which ones?

What’s your favorite one-hit wonder? (This would be a hit song by someone that never had any other hits.)

Have you been to a state fair or a county fair? Did you ever enter into any of the competitions (best jam, pie, or animals…stuff like that)? What was your favorite part of the fair? Did you eat any food on a stick?

The Twitter Emitter

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