Haley Watch: The torture continues

So many links, so much corruption, and so little time.

First up, as always, we have the inept, incompetent Governor Haley.

As one who had my Social Security and bank account numbers hacked at the SC Department of Revenue last autumn, I found the following story fascinating, and mentioned it on the air yesterday:

COLUMBIA — A Democratic senator has asked Gov. Nikki Haley if the state paid a ransom in the hacking of state Department of Revenue files last year.

Sen. Brad Hutto, an Orangeburg Democrat, sent the letter to Haley today and informed senators.

He asked for an immediate answer, arguing that the Legislature is working on final approval of the state's budget which includes tens of millions of dollars related to the massive data breach, which exposed 3.8 million Social Security numbers, 3.3 million bank account numbers and data for nearly 700,000 businesses.

Haley and other officials were asked about a ransom when the hacking was first disclosed last October.

The questions were referred to State Law Enforcement Division Chief Mark Keel, who said he could not comment on the investigation because it was ongoing.

And as I also said on the air, there's your answer.

When a politician is truly innocent of some outlandish accusation, they waste no time in immediately saying so. Why shouldn't they? It is in their interests to dismiss the nonsense as quickly as possible and get on with business.

However, when they are guilty, they do not respond right away... and sometimes (often) try to put off responding AT ALL. They invariably locate some hack to write a press release full of excuses and equivocations, then try to time their excuse-ridden press release for a busy news-day when they think no one is paying attention. I assume that is why Haley has not responded; the excuses (and outright lies) are still being collected, collated and assembled.

In short, right-wing Haleyspeak is imminent.

In this case, however, we are talking about the livelihoods and bank accounts of millions of people... she isn't going to worm her way out of this one so easily.

And more from Her Evilness, denying insurance coverage to people who paid for it, all while charging us MORE:

[A study] by the Rand corporation, looks at the 14 states that have said they will opt out of the new Medicaid funds. It finds that the result will be they get $8.4 billion less in federal funding, have to spend an extra $1 billion in uncompensated care, and end up with about 3.6 million fewer insured residents.

So then, the math works out like this: States rejecting the expansion will spend much more, get much, much less, and leave millions of their residents uninsured. That’s a lot of self-inflicted pain to make a political point.

It’s a truism of health-care politics that the uninsured are impossible to organize. But Obamacare creates an extraordinarily unusual situation. The Affordable Care Act will implemented in states that reject Medicaid. There will be huge mobilization efforts in those states, too, as well as lots of press coverage of the new law. The campaign to tell people making between 133 and 400 percent of poverty that they can get some help buying insurance will catch quite a few people making less than that in its net. And then those people will be told that they would get health insurance entirely for free but for an act of their governor and/or state legislature.

Oh dear God.

Will somebody, please, deliver us from this awful woman? (I told yall not to vote for her. )

I got into a Twitter argument yesterday (what? me?) and surprised myself by stating that I really do believe South Carolina voters thought a nonwhite woman would be an IMPROVEMENT....of course she wouldn't be any feminist radical-of-color (since she IS a Republican), but I certainly don't think they expected someone even more ultra-right than her predecessor Mark Sanford. Are SC voters simply uninformed? Do they vote on looks and PR, rather than what a politician actually stands for? I think they often do; there is the disturbing fact that up to 15% of South Carolinians lack basic literacy skills, which translates as the lowest-level of literacy necessary to apply for jobs or fill out basic paperwork such as insurance forms and tax returns.

This doesn't even count how many are politically illiterate, which is possibly the majority.

Speaking of political illiteracy, I've noticed that since Jim DeMint took over the Heritage Foundation, it's been one disaster after another, with lots more to come, I'm sure. Do they now realize they hired a legendary, world-class dimwit?

Hopefully, this means the place is headed down the drain. Adios, Heritage Foundation.

I wish we could say the same for Governor Haley.