Jon Stewart might just be the Tea Party’s new BFF.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Tea America | ||||
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Why is it ok to make sweeping generalizations about Liberals? Democrats? The Left? The FAR Left?
What is that about removing the plank from thy own eye?
And on to the Tea Party Rally….was Stewart’s coverage fair?
From the News & Messenger regarding the local Tea Party Rally yesterday:
Stewart, a Republican, said he will ask his colleagues to approve a resolution that would prevent county employees from implementing new Medicaid regulations when they take effect in 2014.
“That is a public option that increases Medicaid to beneficiaries by more than 40 percent,” Stewart said at a Prince William County TEA Party Patriots rally at the McCoart Administration Center on Thursday.
Stewart, who seemed confident that his resolution will pass, said the county would not provide the benefits until it is compelled to.
“We will not implement those regulations until we are required to do so through injunction, which can only be initiated by the attorney general of the Commonwealth of Virginia,” he told the crowd of about 100.
Additionally, Stewart said he believes the regulations will not bear legal scrutiny.
“I do not believe they are legal,” he said about 2 p.m., when the crowd had dwindled from a high of about 200 at noon when the rally started. “I do not believe they will serve anyone.”
He continued, “I do believe that they will hurt the current beneficiaries of Medicaid—the disabled, the poor children and others—who already have difficulty finding physicians who will treat them on the low reimbursement rate.”
Stewart said the regulations amount to “unfunded mandates” that will cost taxpayers money and divert resources from other areas.
“I don’t think the county should be responsible for administering a federal program,” he said.
Still, Stewart said he didn’t know how thing would shake out legally.
STOP! Stewart doesn’t know how things will ‘shake out legally? That might be a real good question to ask before everyone jumps on the bandwagon trying to get re-elected. Injunctions are orders by a court of law to do or not do something. When the feds are involved, ‘an injunction’ can also come along with some enforcement like the National Guard or US Marshalls. Is that what we want? Another University of Alamaba situation?
3 short years ago. Who will forget watching the events unfold on TV that left 32 people dead and 17 wounded at Virginia Tech? The killings at VT became the worst massacre ever in the United States. And that day we were all Hokies.
There has been plenty of criticism to go around. Tech was criticized for failure to notify students of the dangers of a marauding student killer on campus. The cops have been criticized for tracking down the wrong person while the real killer went on a rampage. Fairfax County Schools were criticized for not notifying Tech of Cho’s (the killer) anti-social behavior. Laws have been criticized, with everyone declaring ‘NEVER AGAIN.’
What has changed? Does Tech have a better notification system? Have the police come up with a better way of tracking crime on campus? Is it more difficult to obtain guns or is it easier? Are there better checks and balances in place so that people with mental illness are prevented from purchasing guns? Is student information more readily available? Do schools have to notify receiving schools of student mental illness?
Other than a better danger notification system, I am not sure that one thing has changed. The legislature spent the winter trying to relax hand gun laws. Student privacy laws still seem to be in place. I just don’t know how NEVER AGAIN is working out for us. Any ideas?
Meanwhile, a moment of silence for the fallen and a hopeful NEVER AGAIN.
Update:
April 16th is turning in to a real bad day for me. (See first thread)
I am not sure Virginians are ready to move on. I am not sure the mourning process is over. Maybe it won’t be for a long time. The last class to experience the massacre will graduate this spring. Maybe then. Maybe. University Distinguished Professor Nikki Giovanni speaks at the convocation on 4/17/07:
