The Nullification Party by Andrew Sullivan

Hat tip to Rebecca Lasley.

The Nullification Party « The Dish

How does one party that has lost two presidential elections and a Supreme Court case – as well as two Senate elections  –   think it has the right to shut down the entire government and destroy the full faith and credit of the United States Treasury to get its way on universal healthcare now? I see no quid pro quo even. Just pure blackmail ….

I fear this nullification of the last two elections is a deliberate attempt to ensure that the American system of government as we have known it cannot work. It cannot, must not work, in the mindset of these radicals, because they simply do not accept the legitimacy of a President and Congress of the opposing party. The GOP does not regard the president as merely wrong – but as illegitimate. Not misguided – illegitimate. This is not about ending Obamacare as such (although that is a preliminary scalp); it is about nullifying this presidency, the way the GOP attempted to nullify the last Democratic presidency by impeachment. …

If we cave to their madness, we may unravel our system of government, something one might have thought conservatives would have opposed. Except these people are not conservatives. They’re vandals.

The Nullification Party « The Dish

Mission accomplished: The tea party shutdown By E.J. Dionne Jr.,

Mission accomplished: The tea party shutdown By E.J. Dionne Jr.,

Yes, the tea party Republicans should hang a “Mission Accomplished” banner across the House of Representatives. They could flank it with large portraits of Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who ousted John Boehner as speaker of the House in an unacknowledged coup. The right-wing extremists got exactly what they wanted. Now, what will the country do about it?

Mission accomplished: The tea party shutdown By E.J. Dionne Jr.,

Throw the bums out?

New Mexico health insurance exchange goes live | ABQJournal Online

New Mexico health insurance exchange goes live | ABQJournal Online

SANTA FE (AP) — Tens of thousands of New Mexicans will find new opportunities to shop for health insurance through an online marketplace that’s opening for business.

New Mexico’s health insurance exchange begins operating today and there also will be a toll-free hotline providing assistance.

Small businesses — those with 50 or fewer workers — can sign up for health insurance coverage through the state-run exchange: http://www.bewellnm.com/.

Individuals can use the New Mexico exchange to link to a federal government website that will handle their enrollment until the state has its computer system ready to assume that responsibility.

Enrollment also can be done by phone or in person at clinics and other sites across the state

About 80,000 New Mexicans are expected to enroll in insurance plans through the exchange in its first year.

New Mexico health insurance exchange goes live | ABQJournal Online

5 things to know about NM insurance exchange | ABQJournal Online

SANTA FE (AP) — New Mexico and other states are expanding how businesses and individuals can obtain health insurance. Here are five things to know about New Mexico’s health insurance exchange that starts operating today.

5 things to know about NM insurance exchange | ABQJournal Online

Critics miss the point of Affordable Care Act | ABQJournal Online

Quigley does it again. Brilliant. Medicare for all!

Critics miss the point of Affordable Care Act | ABQJournal Online

Winthrop Quigley / Journal Staff Writer | 10 hours ago

Wealthy opponents of the Affordable Care Act – Obamacare – in the form of the Club for Growth have launched some absurd television commercials featuring Uncle Sam replacing the kindly family doctor to examine the most private part of a patient’s anatomy. The message is that the government wants to take over your health care.

There are many Americans who would love to see a real government takeover by eliminating the private, for-profit insurance industry and replacing it with that radical, socialistic, alien form of health care finance known as … Medicare.

As it happens, Obamacare has very little to do with health and everything to do with finance. It is an attempt to rescue the nation’s for-profit health-care financing system from itself.

The United States has a lot of experience with rescuing elements of capitalism from capitalism’s strange propensity to self-destruct. [keep reading]

Critics miss the point of Affordable Care Act | ABQJournal Online

As for that leering Dr Sam, he could be the symbol of the fight against reproductive rights. These fools have no shame at all.

Data deniers and their fears

A friend expressed an interest in data regarding the Affordable Care Act. My first thought is that data means nothing to the deniers of evolution or the deniers of climate change. They are simply data deniers.

Another example comes to mind: gun violence. In this case, those who profit from gun violence have worked steadfastly to prevent the accumulation of data.

The ACA contains detailed mechanisms for the accumulation of and transparency of data. We will have real data on what works and what doesn’t, data we can use to improve the ACA.

The anarcho-libertarians who control the Republican party fear information. Information is the messenger of change, which these paleo-conservatives fear most of all. Change is the root of all their fears.

The opponents of affordable healthcare don’t give a damn about the economy they claim to want to protect. Their current actions prove that. They fear every example of successful government. A government that works might interfere with their profit taking. Better we should all die, be it disease, the food we buy, guns, or pure ignorance.

Who profits from the deadbeat Republicans? The already rich.

Stocks sink as government heads toward shutdown | ABQJournal Online

NEW YORK – Stocks sank Monday as Wall Street worried that a budget fight in Washington could lead to an event far worse for the economy- a failure to raise the nation’s borrowing limit.

Investors pulled back from stocks as a budget fight in Congress threatened to push the government into a partial shutdown for the first time in 17 years. Lawmakers have until midnight Tuesday to reach a budget deal that would keep government in full operation.

There is a simple reason why the budget battle – and, more importantly, an upcoming fight over the debt ceiling – are so crucial: the credit of the United States is the bedrock that nearly every other investment is built upon, largely due to the assumption that the nation will always pay its debts.

Stocks sink as government heads toward shutdown | ABQJournal Online

What’s changing, what’s not, in a shutdown | ABQJournal Online

In this time of argument and political gridlock, a blueprint to manage federal dysfunction is one function that appears to have gone smoothly. Throughout government, plans are ready to roll out to keep essential services running and numb the impact for the public. The longer a shutdown goes on, the more it will be felt in day-to-day lives and in the economy as a whole.

A look at what is bound to happen, and what probably won’t, barring a political breakthrough in the final hours:

What’s changing, what’s not, in a shutdown | ABQJournal Online

The freedom to be weird — he got us right

It’s green all the way for Anthony Bourdain | ABQJournal Online

Here is also an excerpt of a letter written on CNN’s website from Bourdain:

“The upcoming New Mexico show is not about guns. Though there are, as in much of America between the coasts, many guns there.

This show is about the American cowboy ideal, about the romantic promise of the American West, about individuality and the freedom to be weird. New Mexico, where Spanish, Mexican, Pueblo, Navajo and European cultures mix and have mixed — at times painfully and lately, more easily. New Mexico, where everyone from artists, hippies, cowboys, poets, misfits, refugees and tourists of every political stripe have interpreted the promise of its gorgeous, wide-open spaces and the freedom that it offers in their own, very different ways.

New Mexico is an enchanted land, where people are largely free to create their own world.”

It’s green all the way for Anthony Bourdain | ABQJournal Online

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams