More Odds & Ends

Reading a review of a new book that covers the debunked vaccine-autism "link". I came across this which points out why skipping vaccinations is dangerous not just for the unvaccinated child, but the other children in the community as well:

The book lingers on the case of Brie Romaguera, who was just over four weeks old when she died from pertussis (whooping cough) in 2003. Too young for the DPT vaccine, she would never have caught pertussis if more of the children in her Louisiana community had been vaccinated.

Great article on the deficit game (and why deficits are only important when there's a Democrat is in the White House):

By the end of the Clinton years, we had a handsome surplus. In came the second President Bush who, with Republicans in Congress, declared the surplus too big. It was one problem they worked very hard to solve. Two tax cuts and two wars later, we were plunged into deficits - again. And the economic downturn that started on Bush 43's watch made everything worse, cutting revenue and requiring more deficit spending to get the economy moving.

Where were the moderate deficit hawks in all this? They have a very bad habit. When conservatives blow up our fiscal position with their tax cuts, the deficit hawks are silent - or, at best, mumble a few words of mild reproach to have something on the record - and let the budget wreckage happen. Quite a few in their ranks (yes, including some Democrats) actually supported the Bush tax cuts.

But when it's the progressives' turn in power, the deficit hawks become ferocious. They denounce liberals if they do not move immediately to address the shortfall left by conservatives. Thus, conservatives get to govern as they wish. Liberals are labeled as irresponsible unless they abandon their own agenda and devote their every moment in power to cutting the deficit.

It's a game for chumps. The conservatives play it brilliantly. By winning their tax cuts and slashing government revenue, they constrain what liberals can do whenever they get back into power.

Read the whole thing.

Odds & Ends

This is pretty much what I've been saying. Certainly explains why the right wing hates the census so much:

Read the census data that have been coming out over the past couple weeks and you're compelled to a stark conclusion: Either the Republican Party changes totally, or it has a rendezvous with extinction.

What the census shows is that America's racial minorities, aggregated together, are on track to become its majority. The Republican Party's response to this epochal demographic change has been to do everything in its power to keep America (particularly its electorate) as white as can be. Republicans have obstructed minorities from voting; required Latinos to present papers if the police ask for them; opposed the Dream Act, which would have conferred citizenship on young immigrants who served in our armed forces or went to college; and called for denying the constitutional right to citizenship to American-born children of undocumented immigrants.

If the Republicans have a long-term strategic plan, it seems to derive from King Canute, who commanded the tide to stop.

Related:

In the first month of the new legislative season, they have introduced a dizzying number of measures on hot-button issues in statehouses around the country as part of what amounts to a full-throttle mission to repeal, restrict and repress.

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.

As Reuters pointed out this week, in the midterms, “Republicans gained nearly 700 state legislative seats and now have their largest numbers since the Great Depression, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.”

...

As MSNBC and Telemundo reported recently, at least 15 state legislatures are considering Arizona-style immigration legislation. If passed, four of the five states with the largest Hispanic populations — California, Texas, Florida and Arizona — would also be the most inhospitable to them.

Also related:

Tucson — The leader of an anti-illegal-immigrant group was convicted Monday in a home invasion robbery that left a 9-year-old girl and her father dead in what prosecutors said was an attempt to steal drug money to fund the group's operations.

A Tucson jury found Shawna Forde, 42, guilty of murder in the May 2009 killings of Raul Flores, 29, and his daughter Brisenia at their home in Arivaca, a desert community 10 miles north of Mexico.

See, civilian trials of terrorists work just fine.

Meanwhile, back in Texas:

The Senate measure generally would restrict college financial aid to students already receiving it, just like the House. The Senate version holds out hope for some additional financial aid funding.

The Senate draft would put more money into public education than the House but still fall $9.3 billion short of current school funding formulas that pay for items, such as projected student enrollment growth and projected decreases in school district property values. It would include some funding for other education programs slashed in the House draft.
...
The measure would not cover the number of people expected to enroll in Medicaid through the next two years, and it would slash Medicaid reimbursement rates to health care providers.

The bill filed by Ogden would cut public safety and criminal justice, including community supervision and parole programs, though less than the House proposal.

But at least Slick Rick has his priorities right.

"This is business as usual for Rick Perry instead of focusing on the real emergency, our state's budget crisis, he is trying to distract us with divisive partisan issues," explained Kirsten Gray, communication director for the Texas Democratic Party. "It is obvious that Rick Perry is only concerned with becoming a GOP celebrity than with working for every day Texans."

Some in attendance at Saturday's rally agree with Gray like San Francisco transplant Peace Washington Costanzo, who dressed up as the Statue of Liberty and stood on the steps of the Capitol.

"I don't understand why we have to waste time with such issues as this," said Costanzo. "There are so many more pressing issues, closing schools."

Costanzo said she feels a woman has a right to choose what happens medically with her body also told KXAN she loves life.

Bills similar to this one have been introduced in the past by Senator Dan Patrick.

What makes this bill different is that Perry has now deemed it emergency legislation meaning the bill must be dealt with by state legislators in the first 60 days of the new session.

I wonder who gets to pay for the sonograms?