Women's Health

Tomorrow, October 1st, is the first day to sign up for Health Care (ACA) in the U.S.A. If you don't have insurance, you can sign up at www.healthcare.gov/marketplace/individual/ on October 1st. WebMD has a simple introduction on what it means:  wb.md/18Gb6AA

Women will find that the new Health Care law expands preventive care for them.  Here is a list of what will be covered in the new program:

HealthCare.gov: Women--- 


....All Marketplace health plans and many other plans must cover the following list of preventive services for women without charging you a copayment or coinsurance. This is true even if you haven’t met your yearly deductible.
This applies only when these services are delivered by an in-network provider.

1. Anemia screening on a routine basis for pregnant women
2. Breast Cancer Genetic Test Counseling (BRCA) for women at higher risk for breast cancer
3. Breast Cancer Mammography screenings every 1 to 2 years for women over 40
4. Breast Cancer Chemoprevention counseling for women at higher risk
5. Breastfeeding comprehensive support and counseling from trained providers, and access to breastfeeding supplies, for pregnant and nursing women
6. Cervical Cancer screening for sexually active women
7. Chlamydia Infection screening for younger women and other women at higher risk
8. Contraception: Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures, and patient education and counseling, as prescribed by a health care provider for women with reproductive capacity (not including abortifacient drugs). This does not apply to health plans sponsored by certain exempt “religious employers.”
9. Domestic and interpersonal violence screening and counseling for all women
10. Folic Acid supplements for women who may become pregnant
11. Gestational diabetes screening for women 24 to 28 weeks pregnant and those at high risk of developing gestational diabetes
12. Gonorrhea screening for all women at higher risk
13. Hepatitis B screening for pregnant women at their first prenatal visit
14. HIV screening and counseling for sexually active women
15. Human Papillomavirus (HPV) DNA Test every 3 years for women with normal cytology results who are 30 or older
16. Osteoporosis screening for women over age 60 depending on risk factors
17. Rh Incompatibility screening for all pregnant women and follow-up testing for women at higher risk
18. Sexually Transmitted Infections counseling for sexually active women
19. Syphilis screening for all pregnant women or other women at increased risk
20. Tobacco Use screening and interventions for all women, and expanded counseling for pregnant tobacco users
21. Urinary tract or other infection screening for pregnant women
22. Well-woman visits to get recommended services for women under 65....

Why do Republicans want to repeal a law that will save women's lives?  It is no wonder that the Republicans are against this. The Republicans voted against the Lily Ledbetter Act and against VAWA. Why are Republicans so against helping women stay healthy and alive?

Faux-buster

Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, performed like a clown during his 21 hour talk-a-thon. It was NOT a filibuster, but just a display of Cruz's inflated ego. It served no purpose but to perform in front of his tea party fan club.

After Cruz's talk-a-thon, he followed the Senate agenda.
CNN:

He spent more than 21 straight hours railing against any government funding for Obamacare. Then Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas joined the other 99 senators from both parties in voting Wednesday to move ahead on a spending plan expected to do just that.

The rare 100-0 vote on a procedural step means the spending measure that would avoid a partial government shutdown next week now can be amended by Senate Democrats to restore funding for President Barack Obama's signature health care reforms, which had been eliminated last week by House Republicans.....

Ted Cruz provided a platform for himself. 

Must Read on Ted Cruz

If you've been following the egotistical career of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, you'll find these two articles very informative.

Here is a sample from GQ:

...Cruz, 42, arrived in Washington in January as the ultimate conservative purist, a hero to both salt-of-the-earth Tea Partiers and clubby GOP think-tankers, and since then he has come to the reluctant but unavoidable conclusion that he is simply more intelligent, more principled, more right—in both senses of the word—than pretty much everyone else in our nation's capital. That alone isn't so outrageous for the Senate. "Every one of these guys thinks he's the smartest guy in the room," one senior Democratic aide told me. "But Cruz is utterly incapable of cloaking it in any kind of collegiality. He's just so brazen."

Little more than a month after Cruz was sworn in, Senator Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California, likened him to Joe McCarthy for his conduct during Chuck Hagel's confirmation for secretary of defense. Without presenting a shred of evidence, Cruz insinuated that Hagel, a fellow Republican, was on the take from America's enemies. Because Hagel had declined to reveal the source of a $200,000 payment, Cruz suggested, how do we know it didn't come from the North Korean government? Or Saudi Arabia's? Even South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, also a Republican, called Cruz's line of inquiry "out of bounds." 

And then there was the moment, just a month later, when the Judiciary Committee was debating the assault--weapons ban: Cruz was trying to get it through Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein's thick skull that there was this thing called the Second Amendment and that it deserved the same respect as the rest of the Bill of Rights. He made his point by rattling off other amendments and the rights they protected until Feinstein bristled, "I'm not a sixth grader. I've been on this committee for twenty years.... I've studied the Constitution myself. I am reasonably well educated, and I thank you for the lecture."

Read the entire article, especially those of you that are alumni of those fine universities that Cruz referred to as 'minor Ivies' like Penn or Brown' (see GQ).

Mother Jones also ran and article about Cruz, and one section detailed his experience in front of the Supreme Court. Here is a brief snippet from Mother Jones:

...Most of the cases Cruz argued before the Supreme Court shared a common theme—Texas' constitutional right to do as it pleases, free from Washington's meddling.

Of Cruz's eight oral arguments before the Supreme Court on behalf of Texas, five involved the death penalty, with Cruz arguing, at various points, that Texas should be allowed to execute the mentally ill, a Mexican national who hadn't been informed of his Vienna Convention right to speak to his consulate, and a man who raped his stepdaughter.....

There is another case Ted Cruz was involved in that will shock many people. The NY Times has the info:

....Mr. Cruz rarely mentions his earliest appearances before the Supreme Court, which do not make for great campaign material. During his first trip there, in 2003, he argued that Texas was free to back out of a legal settlement in which it had vowed to improve health care services for poor children. The justices ruled unanimously against Texas.... 

What kind of a cold-hearted person would argue against health services for poor kids? Ted Cruz.

Poor, Overpaid Politician

Things are soooooooooo tough for some Republicans members of the House of Representatives. They have a short work week, spend weekend hobnobbing with wealthy donors, and take long vacations recesses.  You just feel their pain.

Talking Points Memo:

Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA), who's running for Senate in Georgia, complained that while his staff can jump to K Street and make $500,000 a year by lobbying, he's "stuck" in Congress making a bare $172,000 a year.
The comments, relayed by congressional aides to National Review, came during a closed door meeting among Congressional Republicans on Obamacare....

...."Meanwhile I'm stuck here making $172,000 a year," he added.....

Poor Phil Gingrey is scraping by on a mere $172,000 per year!!!!!  Cry me a river!!!!  It is apparent that Gingrey needs to go to the private sector and get a real job.  The good people in Georgia need to send Gingrey out of Congress and out to the unemployment line.

Again

The news from Washington, DC is just awful.
WashingtonPost:

At least 13 people are dead and several others were wounded after a gunman opened fire at the Washington Navy Yard on Monday, police said, spreading fear and chaos across the region as authorities sought to contain the panic....

....D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier and Mayor Vincent C. Gray announced the mounting number of casualties in a series of news conferences. The suspected shooter, identified by the FBI as Aaron Alexis, 34, living in Fort Worth, is among the 13 dead. Alexis was a military contractor, one official said....

These mass shootings are horrible. People go to work on an ordinary day and they get killed. When will it stop?

Ohio GOP Fails at Math- Again

Let us never forget September 11th.

* Gov. John Kasich's administration and the Republican Party just want you to know that there is nothing wrong with the the fact that appointees and JobsOhio members are contributing massive funds to his re-election campaign. Instead, they want you to look at the smaller inappropriate contribution made to Democrat Ed Fitzgerald that has already been returned.

Dispatch:

Gov. John Kasich has received about $445,000 in campaign contributions from people he appointed to state boards and commissions in 2011, according to numbers provided by the Ohio Democratic Party.

Those figures, which were independently verified by The Dispatch, show that Kasich received contributions totaling $445,301 from 101 people who were among the hundreds he appointed during his first year in office, including more than $64,000 from JobsOhio board members.

The contributions are permitted by state law and are common for gubernatorial appointees for most administrations. The total dollar amount Kasich has received from his appointees is likely much higher — there have been hundreds more appointments made in Kasich’s second and third years as governor....

Let me see if I get this straight......  According to the Ohio GOP, $445,000 is smaller that the $1000 that Fitzgerald received (and has already returned).  We know Republicans have never been good at math except when they are on the receiving end of cash! We may need to have some second and third graders teach the Republicans this little math fact:  $445,000  >  $1000.

In the news....

* Indiana's right to work law has been declared unconstitutional, according to Raw Story.

* Business First has news about Ohio.
 Business First:

JobsOhio, A&F, slots, Groupon, glass, tax breaks for adult toys and more in Tuesday's top headlines:

• JobsOhio under fire: Likely Democratic nominee Ed FitzGerald continues to make a political case out of JobsOhio as he mounts his campaign to unseat Ohio Gov. John Kasich, telling the Cleveland Plain Dealer he'd work to bring more transparency to the privatized economic-development agency. He admits, though, that doing so would be difficult with a Republican-dominated legislature.
• Kasich squeamish?: If you thought any growing company could get tax credits from the state, you'd be wrong. As the Cincinnati Business Courier reports, "relationship enhancement product" company Pure Romance Inc.'s deal with JobsOhio for tax breaks was vetoed by the Kasich administration despite its pledge to add jobs. The CEO told the paper he's disappointed in Gov. John Kasich, whose spokesman didn't return calls for comment........
• Not-so-happy anniversary: In national news, it was five years ago this week that the economic downturn accelerated into the Great Recession with the collapse of Lehman Brothers.....

Kasich didn't want to give money to a company that would create jobs because it makes sex toys???? How interesting!!!!

>>>> Roll Call has a story that hints that John Kasich may be a candidate for President in 2016. Kasich would be just like the rest of the Republicans----anti- women, workers, police, firefighters, job safety, and of course, anti-public school.

Roll Call:

....As veteran political columnist Joe Hallett of The Columbus Dispatch noted in a late June column, it would be “bad form” for Kasich to acknowledge his interest in a national race even before Buckeye State voters had awarded him a second term.....

.....Insiders believe Kasich’s biggest change from his brief 2000 presidential run to a potential run in 2014 is money.
“He spends more time in the Cleveland media market than any place other than Columbus,” one longtime Ohio watcher said. “There are still plenty of votes and plenty of money up there. He has done a good job locking that money up. He finally has some serious people behind him financially.”

Kasich's poll numbers among women and minority voters are not good. We all know that Republicans represent mostly white males.

Jon Stewart

On CBS This Morning, the program ran a short clip about Jon Stewart's return to The Daily Show on Comedy Central. Charlie Rose and Gail King said that they were excited that Stewart had arrived back and indicated that they had stayed up late to watch the program. Norah O'Donnell said nothing  and instead went over to a station break. O'Donnell, it should be noted, is married to Dan Senor, former member of the Bush administration and adviser to Mitt Romney. I guess Republicans don't understand The Daily Show.

John Oliver did a super job over the summer filling in for Jon Stewart, but it was great to see Stewart back in his chair!  Welcome back, Jon Stewart!!!!