Just saw on Rachel Maddow... Harry Reid snuck in a provision restoring LIHEAP funding...

[BluegrassStateBlues]

[BlueCaliDem]

1. Harry, that sly fox! ;-) eom

[Tumbulu]

2. What is that - sorry for being so ignorant nt

[krispos42]

3. Money for low-income people to buy home heating oil...

..IIRC.

[Tumbulu]

10. Thanks, wonderful! Nt

[Cha]

4. No problem.. it just means you never had to have it..

The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program

[Tumbulu]

11. Thanks! nt

[IrishAyes]

32. People in the northeast are still going to miss Chavez this winter, though. He supplied

much of the heating oil gratis to the poor. That's why, regardless of his occasional buffoonery and putdowns, I still had a warm spot in my heart for the guy. He was certainly better than our GOP.

[YOHABLO]

5. Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program

[YOHABLO]

7. Is that just for heating oil .. or other resources?

[BluegrassStateBlues]

13. Subsidies for power bills in the Winter as well...

I have family that gets their whole electric bill paid for at least 2 of the winter months.

[left on green only]

20. I Live In A Very Rural Area Of California

LHEAP helps me to pay for the high cost of the propane gas that I use for heating my home (really apartment).

[PotatoChip]

44. It will even help with wood heat.

My MIL got 4 cord delivered every year through LIHEAP (until she moved into elderly housing).

[Tumbulu]

12. Thanks nt

[Cha]

6. WOW! Love

Harry

thanks Bluegrass!

[sheshe2]

8. Harry, you sly thing!

We love you!

[Cha]

14. She..

that program was so helpful in the cold New York Winters.

[sheshe2]

15. I can't see the picture you sent. :(

Yet it will help so may people stay warm.

Senator Harry Reid.

[Cha]

18. Bummer! I can see it..darn

Anyway, sorry you can't see it. It's a picture of person bundled up against the cold snow.

[BluegrassStateBlues]

9. Can anyone decipher this? Does it restore funding to 2012 levels?

SEC. 142. The first proviso under the heading ''De-

4 partment of Health and Human Services--Administration
5 for Children and Families--Low Income Home Energy
6 Assistance'' in division F of Public Law 112-74 shall be
7 applied to amounts made available by this joint resolution
8 by substituting ''2014'' for ''2012''.
9

[Fearless]

17. I believe so.

[Auntie Bush]

43. I'm hoping the 2012 really goes into effect.

Last winter (2013) I Got 1/2 the assistance that I got in 2012. That was tough! It only paid for 2 weeks oil in Dec. We use a lot of oil up here in Vermont...too damn much!!

Thank God for Harry!

[IrishAyes]

16. That's really swell. Now a lot fewer of us will freeze to death in the dark this winter.

Let's hope they can do something about food stamps, too, while they're at it. I know our side wants to do so.

[left on green only]

21. My Social Worker Explained To Me About The Reduction In Cal Fresh Benefits

He said that the reason for the recent 5.05% reduction in Cal Fresh benefits (SNAP) is because, quite a while before all of this recent fighting began, a "rider" had been passed onto the Food Stamp Program that allocated a temporary amount of additional funding for the program. We saw that additional funding as an addition to our monthly Cal Fresh benefit amount. But now that the funds have become coincidentally depleted, we will be seeing a reduced amount in our monthly allotment, until a new additional fund has been created.

Except, don't hold your breath.

Still, I am sure that there must be some kind soul, in at least one house of congress, who will indeed try to add the refunding of that amount onto some "impotent" bill, as an unrelated rider. And because stranger things have been known to happen, it just may end up becoming law again.

[blue14u]

23. I was watching Democracy Now

tonight, and they said South Carolina has suspended

any welfare in the state until further notice..

This is very scary!!!!

[IrishAyes]

31. Yes, scary; but ...

What I read, correct or not, said that future applications had been halted. Bad enough but not the worst possible. As for current enrollees, I'd bet the courts will step in there. Especially now. All this is terrible and inexcusable, but hopefully survivable. Except for the GOP, who discover to crash and burn to a cinder. Kick people hard enough when they're down, and they do remember.

[blue14u]

57. I may have that

mixed up with... She may have said, North Carolina..

I will check on that to be sure..

You are correct... either way, or either state, it will not

surprise me that they would try and pull a stunt like this.. I know one,

if not both Carolinas changed voting rights b/c their hateful

Repuk Governor wanted it! I believe voting rights should be

expanded, not more limitation.. I'm furious about this stunt also!!!

[avaistheone1]

19. That's a good thing.

[SunSeeker]

22. Not only LI-HEAP but a whole list of funding items were attached:

1. Colorado flood recovery
2. Wildfire recovery
3. Wildfire prevention
4. Ohio River Construction project
5. Payment of $174K owed to former Senator Frank Lautenberg's widow
6. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board

And the House passed it with 87 GOP votes!

[klook]

27. All those payments going to suffering people...

must make the Republicans and their puppetmasters sick!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

24. They should re-fund the refrigerator buyback too...

That's was a good program to retire and recycle that old 70s era fridge in the garage that sucks up more energy than a modern air conditioner.

[IrishAyes]

33. Poor people should get free air conditioners too.

Every year more people die from the heat than from the cold.

Far as I'm concerned, if it helps the elderly poor stay independent longer, they should get a free dishwasher too!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

36. They should require AC in HUD homes.

[IrishAyes]

37. That would help a lot.

We have one set of HUD apartments here that are brick and very lovely. While our winters are fierce, at least a couple summer months approach or exceed 100 degrees in the shade.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

38. There is a tendency with Republicans to make the poor suffer...

Their reasoning goes like this:

Anyone can make it in America if they try so that means the ONLY reason people are poor is because they CHOOSE to be poor so you should make being poor suffer to get them off their lazy asses and they will discover working for a living is a wonderful thing. Lately the Right Wing "Christians" have added that the rich are "blessed" so the poor got there because they did something to piss off God,...probably promiscuity or drugs or stealing or some other sin and we shouldn't help them because God wants them to suffer.

Neither one of these groups wants to hire the poor because they're scum in their opinion. If they do hire them it's for slave wages because that's more than they deserve.

[IrishAyes]

39. Among the local TPs, virtually every one poor as a church mouse,

I've seen this obscene worship of the rich. It's idolatry. They'll call you a heretic and worse when you reject that notion. Some version of Stockholm Syndrome, I guess.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

42. It's covered here...

The free online book "The Authoritarians"

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

These people submit to those that they consider to be authority figures and consider loyalty to them and defending them to be a virtue.

[IrishAyes]

45. Many thanks.

Now I know what I'll be reading next.

Another example from my own life, though:

A few months ago a huge 220-volt oil radiator I dragged all over creation since Germany finally developed a tiny slow leak. Not really needing it any longer, I finally decided to part with it because I have a terrible natural inclination to hang onto too much and wring every last possible bit of use, then save it in case I think of further use later.

So I offered it for free on the local General Store radio program. Some guy who wanted a year round greenhouse came and got it. Right up until the very end everything was peachy keen and delightful. He thanked me into embarrassment, so I said innocently enough, "Well, I have to pass it along. God and other people have always been generous to me, and if I get too selfish, it will only bring karma down on my head. Don't want that!"

He nodded, grinned even broader, and then delivered the fatal blow. "Yeah, y'know every one of those rich guys I see on tv says the same thing."

I flashed from embarrassment to a sudden desire to grab him by the throat, shake him like a rag doll, and scream "Wake up you ijit!" But somehow I still felt too sorry for him and there was no time or possibility to straighten out his worldview, so I just choked out, "Well, enjoy the heater as much as I did."

I don't have the world's best poker face but I am intuitive, and I think he got some dim glimmer that he'd put his foot in it. I didn't want to hurt his feelings but it enfuriated me to see his gullibility and acceptance of a cruel twist and hoax. So I rushed back indoors, muttering imprecations under my breath the whole time. I'm sure he had no idea at all what caused that sudden flash of fire in my eyes.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

46. Maybe he was being cynical but I doubt it because that would have been rude as hell.

[IrishAyes]

47. No, he wasn't cynical at all. His face lit up like he was channeling God or something. Adoration.

I don't think Ted Patrick could've deprogrammed him. That's what passes for virtue and piety here. The poor saps have nothing much except imaginary virtue, and you'll pry the guns out of their cold dead hands before you eradicate that world view. I have to admit of course that a certain part of me was angry at having been lumped in with what I hate. "You're just like those rich people!" Arrrrgh!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

48. He'd have a point if the rich actually were giving back....

Maybe he means the TV Preachers like Pat Robertson who showed images of aid workers in Africa and people with Bibles.

Turns out the actual aid workers didn't get a dime of support from him and were non religious and French to boot and his cameras followed them around for a day and spliced in some of his people with Bibles as if they were part of the aid effort. You know, things like unloading bags of rice and wheat and doctors and nurses in villages setting up tents and giving vaccinations. Then you show a white guy in a polo shirt getting a mother and child to bow their heads for the cameras.

[IrishAyes]

49. It's the idolatrous human worship thing that grates the worst on my nerves.

I have a healthy respect for lightning bolts and know heresy when I see it.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

51. A lot of it goes back to "King And Country"...

There was a time when you wanted your king to have a BIG treasure room because it improved your quality of life and you were respected if you were a subject of that king when you traveled outside of the kingdom. Kings claimed their rule was ordained by God so you were to swear loyalty to them as you would to God.

These idiots have transposed that mentality upon the likes of the Walton Family. As if their defending the Walton Family's greed earns them a place in heaven.

[IrishAyes]

52. I hope God forgives them for dragging the rest of us through hell on earth

because I have an awfully hard time doing so. Guess they're lucky it isn't up to me. Maybe it's partly due to my horror that a human behaves like a lobotomy patient. Zombies! Best we can hope for I guess is that they'll eventually breed out. At least somewhat. Maybe? Helllllp!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

54. Sorry...

[IrishAyes]

58. Thanks for the sweet picture.

Does this mean we're engaged now?

Sorry (not). I couldn't resist. But it is a sweet picture.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

59. Just answering the "breed out" question.

[Rhiannon12866]

25. Kudos to Harry!

[pam4water]

26. Good job, Harry. Didn't know you had it in you! K&R n/t

[IrishAyes]

34. I always did. Harry's one of my favorites. Soft spoken as a country general store owner

and still kicks like a mule.

[Auntie Bush]

41. You tell'm Irish

[2naSalit]

28. You can watch it here

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show

She talks to one of my Senators about it.

[MoonRiver]

29. Good job Harry! I heard McConnell got something for Kentucky.

Don't remember what though!

[Bolo Boffin]

53. McConnell got $3 billion for a lock and dam construction project in Kentucky. n/t

[Hekate]

30. Harry Reid, You Rock!

[Arkana]

35. Crazy like a fox, that Harry Reid.

[leeroysphitz]

40. Good on Harry. I take back some of the nasty things I've said about him n/t

[stevenleser]

50. These last three weeks has been the best I have ever seen of Senator Reid.

Rock solid, unwavering, he has been really impressive.

[Dawson Leery]

55. K/R

Reid is a proven leader.

[n2doc]

56. That's AWESOME!

Damn, my hat's off to that man.