{"id":10162,"date":"2013-03-22T01:06:19","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T08:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=10162"},"modified":"2013-03-22T01:06:19","modified_gmt":"2013-03-22T08:06:19","slug":"open-thread3222013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/22\/open-thread3222013\/","title":{"rendered":"Open Thread–3\/22\/2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m still down and hoping to be back up soon.<\/font><\/p>\n

Jig Zone Puzzle<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s took me 3:31 (average 5:02).  To do it, click here<\/a>.  How did you do?<\/font><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

From NY Times<\/a>: <\/font>Under the federal Medicaid statute, states must seek reimbursement for medical expenses if the beneficiary also receives money from an insurance company or another third party. This week, the Supreme Court correctly slapped down a North Carolina law that could squeeze far more from beneficiaries than they actually owe.<\/p>\n

By a 6-to-3 vote, the court ruled<\/a> that the Medicaid law pre-empts a North Carolina law that, in effect, puts a lien on a beneficiary\u2019s property by automatically seizing one-third of an insurance settlement even though it includes payment for pain and suffering. Under Medicaid law, the state can only claim reimbursement for actual care. <\/p>\n

Isn’t it just like the Republican Party to reach into the pockets of poor people to steal their settlements for pain and suffering? Injustices Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas sided with the Republican crooks.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Think Progress<\/a>: <\/font>The final document isn\u2019t even complete yet, but one Republican Senator is already attempting to slip language into vital legislation denouncing the United States\u2019 accession to a new treaty regulating the sale of arms between countries.<\/font><\/p>\n

Representatives from around the world are meeting in New York over the next two weeks to hammer out<\/a><\/font> a final agreement on how to best regulate the $70 billion arms trade between countries. Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate is attempting finalize passage of a budget for Fiscal Year 2014. Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), a noted skeptic<\/a><\/font> of international organizations and the United Nations in particular, filed an amendment<\/a><\/font> Thursday afternoon that brings the two efforts together:<\/font><\/p>\n

The Chairman of the Committee on the Budget of the Senate may revise the allocations of a committee or committees, aggregates, and other appropriate levels in this resolution for one or more bills, joint resolutions, amendments, motions, or conference reports that relate to upholding Second Amendment rights, which shall include preventing the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT),<\/strong><\/span>by the amounts provided in such legislation for these purposes, provided that such legislation would not increase the deficit or revenues over either the period of the total of fiscal years 2013 through 2018 or the period of the total of fiscal years 2013 through 2023.<\/font><\/p>\n

…<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/p>\n

To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time a Senator, and I use the term very loosely, has attempted to block a treaty that did not yet exist. Wayne LaPierre and the gun industry must be deathly afraid that their profits from worldwide conflicts will be cut, regardless of the lives that such a treaty might help save.<\/font><\/p>\n

From Raw Story<\/a>: <\/font>On her show Thursday night, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow lampooned Republicans for having a flip-flopping problem, saying it appeared they did not seem to believe what they were actually supposed to believe.<\/p>\n

 <\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news<\/a>, world news<\/a>, and news about the economy<\/a><\/p>\n

Dang! Little Lord Willard’s sketch etching had become so contagious that it is now a party-wide epidemic!<\/font><\/p>\n

Cartoon<\/strong>:<\/font><\/p>\n

\"22Cartoon\"<\/font><\/p>\n

I imagine Republicans would support its reinstatement, so Bubba the Bagger could own more than one.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m still down and hoping to be back up soon. Jig Zone Puzzle: Today\u2019s took me 3:31 (average 5:02).  To do it, click here.  How did you do? Short Takes: From NY Times: Under the federal Medicaid statute, states must seek reimbursement for medical expenses if the beneficiary also receives money from an insurance company […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-open-thread","category-personal","category-politics","category-35-id","category-3-id","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}