Happy Obamacare launch and government lock-out day!

The Grumpy Old (White) People's party (GOP) is throwing a temper tantrum. Like their ancestors in pre-Civil War "Slave Power," they've decided it is "rule or ruin" time. Odd that it was a founder of the Republican Party who came up with that descriptive phrase, but it is certainly an apt description of the current GOP.

Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events.

I'm a sucker for white board videos that explain complex concepts. Here's a good one explaining the Affordable Care Act that the GOP is so upset about, in case you need another go at this. Pass it on.
Over decade ago, a good friend with one of the best shit detectors I've ever known, crowed to me about how wonderful her "independent" Governor was in her home state of Maine. "That Angus -- he's a real one!"

Angus King is now an "independent" U.S. Senator (he caucuses with the Dems) and he has a story to tell Republicans who are urging young people to refuse the option of health insurance coverage created by Obamacare. Brian Beutler reports the story in Salon.

“That’s a scandal — those people are guilty of murder in my opinion,” Sen. Angus King, a Maine Independent who caucuses with Democrats, told me in a Friday interview. “Some of those people they persuade are going to end up dying because they don’t have health insurance. For people who do that to other people in the name of some obscure political ideology is one of the grossest violations of our humanity I can think of. This absolutely drives me crazy.”

King has good personal reasons to value health insurance for the young and apparently healthy. Read all about it at the link.