Archive for January, 2011
Rahm Emanuel – Back to the Issues, Ruling is Over
With the Illinois Supreme Court judge ruling behind him, Rahm Emanuel, and the other candidates are back on the campaign trail. His opponents are finding new ways to criticize him, as he leads in the polls. Emanuel has tons more money than his three main opponents, who are working to quickly refocus voters on the issues in a campaign that for months has been consumed by the fight over the former White House chief of staff’s eligibility for the Feb. 22 ballot.
Candidate Gery Chico and former Chicago schools president, visited a barbershop in President Barack Obama’s former neighborhood, to blast what he calls the “Rahm tax.” Chico says Emanuel supports reducing the city portion of the sales tax while expanding the tax base to include luxury services such as limousine rides and Botox treatments.
Will Healthcare Reform Survive in the Courts?
When the House voted to repeal the healthcare bill, it may have been symbolic, but all challenges are for real, in the courts. We know that the US Senate won’t pass the legislation to repeal, and Obama has said he would veto it, should it reach his desk. Yet the legal challenges to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by 28 states and others inevitably are headed to a U.S. Supreme Court dominated by a 5-4 conservative majority expected to be at least philosophically sympathetic.
And a decision is expected sometime this week by a conservative federal judge in Florida. U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson in Pensacola heard summary judgment arguments in December.
Florida Judge Rules Health Care Act Invalid
A Federal Judge in Florida has ruled that the individual mandate in the Affordable Health Care Act is Unconstitutional and Congress exceeded it’s authority in including it. He further ruled that because the mandate cannot be separated from the rest of the act, the entire act is invalid.
More to come soon at http://omnispeak.com
Should Congress Privatize Medicare?
Just months after arguing with Democrats, for cutting Medicare, House Republicans are debating whether to relaunch their quest to privatize the health program for seniors. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is testing support for his idea to replace Medicare with a fixed payment to buy a private medical plan from a menu of coverage options.
It’s unknown if the voucher plan would be part of the deal.
Westboro Baptist Church to Protest Play About Life of Matthew Shepard
The Westboro Baptist Church, which has gained much public criticism, for nearly two decades, while picketing funerals of fallen American soldiers and events regarding members of the GLBTQ community, plans to be at the University of Maine Sunday afternoon to protest a play about the life of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was tortured and murdered in Laramie, Wyo. in 1998.
The daughter of the founder, Fred Phelps, Margie Phelps, posted on her Twitter page, that seven or eight members of the church are expected to be in Orono Sunday afternoon “barring any changes.” The church members are scheduled to picket from 12:15 p.m. to the show’s start in Room 100 of the Donald P. Corbett Business Building at 1 p.m. The play showed Friday and Saturday nights.
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