DU Boxing Day Challenge: Praise for ANYTHING in your state?

[Angela Shelley]

Many DUers state that EVERYTHING is going wrong in the USA.

Maybe SOMETHING is going better on the state level.

Is there ANYTHING that is going well IN YOUR STATE?

[blogslut]

1. From Texas

http://www.windenergy.org/

[ClassWarrior]

2. Russ Feingold.

Also, Gwen Moore co-signed Articles of IMPEACHMENT against Cheney** just before Christmas.

NGU.

[alfredo]

3. We're not Indiana.

[demnan]

4. Jim Webb and Governor Tim Kaine

and in 2008, Mark Warner. We want to put our second Virginia Democrat in the Senate. Now that will be exciting.

[Eurobabe]

56. AHHHH, yes....

My heart remains in Virginia. :hi:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

There's plenty that's good in California!

Barbara Boxer, for starters...

It's a gorgeous day, sunny, cool, bright blue sky...

We're ahead of where we need to be in our rainfall for this season, so far...*fingers crossed that this will continue.*

:hi:

[melody]

34. Barbara is the best ... I'm so proud she's one of our Senators

I know so many people whom she has helped.

[DBoon]

45. We do have term limits

so Arnold cannot be governor for life

[librechik]

5. Colorado: Throw those black box voting machines into Lake Dillon

and don't replace them with Diebold!

Good for us!

[proud patriot]

6. My Governor can beat your Governor at arm wrestling

I'm from California

[EFerrari]

17. LOL!

He does a great robot impression, too. :)

[Giant Robot]

31. It's an impression?

:shrug:

[EFerrari]

52. No insult intended to real giant robots.

:)

[Oeditpus Rex]

28. At least until he's out of office

you're from Kollyforniya.

:P



(So am I.)

[melody]

37. Well, 20 years ago maybe, Ahnold is just a big pile of mealy white flesh now n/t

[Forkboy]

7. Gay marriage, Kerry and Kennedy, Barney Frank, great sports....

...an attempt at universal healthcare (needs mucho work though), a democratic governor for the first time in a century (ok, maybe not that long, but it seemed it).

Mass is a great place to live.

[stillcool]

27. I love this state...

and feel really fortunate to live here. I walk down to the end of the street and see the ocean...and Boston's skyline...peace and tranquility whenever I want. Couldn't ask for a better library. Public transportation within walking distance. What a place!

[goodgd_yall]

53. As a Californian

Mass. is one of the few other states I would consider living in.

[melody]

8. California - the emission reduction targets and lots of smaller stuff

If Cheney lets us.

[Tesha]

9. New Hampshire...

o Is thoroughly Democratic, at least for the moment.

o Always votes on paper, even if it's machine-counted.

(I wonder if that's related to the first item?)

o Repealed a Republican parental-notification law re: abortion.

o Offers civil unions.

o Is a physically beautiful state, with seacoast, lakes,
and mountains all within an hour's drive of each other.

o Has the Mount Washington Cog Railway.

o Borders on Quebec (just in case ;) )

Tesha

[magellan]

10. FL Congressman Wexler backs impeachment of Cheney

That's the best thing I can say about Florida at this time.

[BushOut06]

15. Well, it's warm here also

We're not freezing or dealing with ice & snow on the roads. But yeah, Wexler's movement to impeach would be at the top of my list also.

[Angela Shelley]

19. A friend of mine occasionally sends e-mails

saying "I´m still wearing shorts" or "I had to put a sweatshirt on this morning", just to remind me that southern Florida is the warmest place to be.

[Blue_In_AK]

11. Alaska is rockin'

There are so many things going right here that it's hard to list them all. We have one of the most popular governors in the country, Sarah Palin, who, although a Republican, has brought a breath of fresh air here after running and winning on an anti-corruption platform. We've had three (so far) federal indictments of corrupt Republican legislators, two of whom, Tom Anderson and Pete Kott, have been convicted and sentenced to five and six years respectively. Ted Stevens and Don Young are under investigation, and we are anticipating quite a few more indictments of state officials very soon, most notable Ted Stevens' son Ben.

It's always beautiful here, we finally got a good snowfall the past couple of days, and there's a real hopeful feel this year. Alaska's just a great place to live, and I'm so glad I'm here.

[Angela Shelley]

16. I visited friends in Juneau twice,

and saw the Northern Lights on one occasion.

[Blue_In_AK]

51. Other cool stuff about Alaska

No state income tax and no sales tax in a lot of the towns (including Anchorage), and they give each of us money every year from our oil royalties. This year was $1,654 for every man, woman and child who's lived here at least a year. Also you can legally possess up to an ounce of pot (or 25 plants), abortions are still legal and we have no death penalty.

[JohnnyLib2]

12. KY voted the Repub Gov. out and the Dem in.

:kick:

[Lucinda]

13. My adopted state: TN - Great Smoky Mountain National Park

Centennial Initiative 2016 for the GSMNP (conservation and preservation initiatives and the centennial of park establishment)

TennCare - in need of major help, but still a source of help for people who need it

[Angela Shelley]

14. What is TennCare?

[Lucinda]

18. TennCare is a state Medicaid program that

provides health coverage for low-income children, pregnant woman and disabled Tennesseans. It's not without it's flaws, but it a huge benefit to those who qualify and need medical assistance.

[Angela Shelley]

20. Do those insured by TennCare

pay into the system, or is it funded through state taxes?

[K Gardner]

36. When Tenn Care was up and fully operational, it either worked as

state-funded for those who could not pay (like Medicaid), or you paid on a sliding scale if your employer did not offer insurance and if you could afford it. Because of horrible mismanagement, the program failed. Bleeding money, our illustrious governor slashed a quarter of a million people off the rolls, rather than try to fix it. The illness and death we see now on the local level and in our emergency rooms in Tennessee is astounding.

[Lucinda]

38. It has two parts - TennCare Medicaid and TennCare Standard.

The Medicaid part is for those who meet Medicaid requirements. The Standard is for those who are uninsured or are uninsurable and not Medicaid eligible. The Standard enrollees, at or above the poverty level pay premiums and co-pays.

It replaced the former medicaid program, so no new taxes were implemented. It been in flux since it's onset. But they are trying to find the best model to help the greatest number of people.

Wiki has a better full explanation that I'm providing: :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TennCare

[K Gardner]

42. Except that no one can get Standard Coverage anymore. Even those eligible for Medicaid can't get it.

See links provided about TennCare Myths.

[K Gardner]

33. In 2005, TennCare cut 225,000 people off of its rolls overnight.

This has had catastrophic results. What once was touted as a shining example of what States could do on their level to insure ALL people, was horribly mismanaged and now lays in ruins. How do I know? I am an RN, I live in Tennessee and my children's coverage was dropped. The movie "Collateral Damage - Bad Medicine in Tennessee" is worth watching.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uud11ft2HJU

http://www.tenncare.org/tenncare/myths_realities/myths_realities.html

[Lucinda]

41. I know. I was one of those cut. Fortunately my cancer treatment was finished first.

Unfortunately, other conditions worsened because I had no coverage and was no longer insurable, and it took forever to get through the disability process. So I am alive because of TennCare, but in worse shape then I would have been, had I not been one of those cut.

The program was flawed. It was abused horribly. But it still has merit, and I hope that it will continue to grow.

[K Gardner]

47. I'm so sorry, WL.. but glad you were able to get treatment. There are those of us working daily

in the medical community to get the program back up and running, to get people "reinsured". Also lots of community based organizations have sprung up to fill in the huge gaps TennCare left. If you're new to the area and ever need any contact numbers, please PM me, I might be able to help :-)

[Lucinda]

50. Thanks. I'm covered now through

disability and TennCare (Blue Care)...so as long as I don't lose disability i'm fine.

Do you have this resource on your list? They serve the Sevier county area.
http://www.mountainhope.org/

I'm glad to hear there is a concentrated effort to get TennCare back on more solid footing. Thanks for doing it. It really is needed.

[enlightenment]

21. The Desert Tortoise is a protected species in our state . . . n/t

[Angela Shelley]

22. Are you allowed to have one in your yard?

[enlightenment]

59. People are allowed to keep them, but they have to register

and prove that they have the appropriate environment for their care. There are exceptions (as with all things).

Here's a link to the details:

http://www.tortoisegroup.org/sales/onlinepdf_contents.html

[sandnsea]

23. civil unions, health insurance subsidies

Compared to what I hear from DUers in other states, Oregon is a virtual paradise.

[A-Long-Little-Doggie]

24. Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, Kerry & Kennedy!

Great schools, great healthcare, 4 real seasons, the Cape, the Berkshires, gay marriage... Life is good in Massachusetts these days!

[TexasProgresive]

25. g WUSS b is not at the pig farm chopping cedar!

At least I don't think he is.

[Richard Steele]

26. Cheapest cigarettes in the nation. nm

[QC]

29. The beaches here in Florida are generally nice. n/t

[Warpy]

32. Yeah, if you can get to them.

There was an unbroken wall of high rise condos along the beach when I decided to go and dip a toe in the Atlantic for old time's sake after my dad died 2 years ago. The public access parking lot and path were gone. You couldn't even see the ocean between towers since their garages were in the way. The very nice nature walk in the area had also been destroyed with another yuppie warren built on top of it.

It was the worst case of scenic vandalism I've ever seen in my life, and I've seen stripmines.

[QC]

60. Yes, that's happening here now.

Long stretches of private beach, and "public access points" a long way from any parking. It's funny, though, but when the storms wash the sand away, taxpayers are expected to pay for the "renourishment" of those same beaches that they can't visit.

Not long ago St. Joe Company (every bit as evil as the Walton Empire) had the state move a beautiful stretch of scenic highway off the coast and into the piney woods so they could throw up more beach houses.

Florida would be a great place, if its state and local governments weren't wholly-owned subsidiaries of the big developers.

[Warpy]

30. Richardson is my governor

and a north-south commuter rail system is partially built, up and running, and doing better every time the price of gas takes another jump. It should reach Santa Fe in another year and a half or so and I'll be a frequent customer. That's going very well!

We also got 100% paper, Optiscan ballots that can be recounted by hand. That's great, considering 17,000+ of us were robbed of our national votes in 2004 by DRE machines.

That old fossil, Domenici, is retiring, pleading senility so he can escape the consequences for making threatening phone calls to a U.S. Attorney, whom he later had fired.

Heather Wilson(R-COW) is running for Domenici's seat, is vulnerable because she made the same threatening phone calls, and is running against the very powerful Udall (D-effective) and we might finally be rid of her as she hauls her bony butt around to all the lobbyist groups in DC begging for a job.

While the economy is in the toilet here as it is everyplace, some things are going well. Yes, there are things to celebrate here in NM.

[Angela Shelley]

35. Greetings to New Mexico!

I spent a year in Gallup and a year in Farmington, had great friends in both places, visited the Balloon Festival in Albuquerque (a true highlight). Yes, you live in a beautiful state.

[Vinca]

39. There's no sales tax, but . . .

you need to buy a permit to look cross-eyed on Tuesdays and registering your car almost requires a second mortgage. And there's some lovely scenery.

[emilyg]

40. Georgia

No need for an umbrella.

[XemaSab]

43. Lots of open space, lots of farmland, lots of woods and deserts and coastline

:D

(Did you know that if you cut the state off north of Sacramento, there would only be 1.1 million people? And the most populous counties would be Butte, Shasta, and Humboldt? :shrug:)

[cboy4]

44. Errr, it looks as though we'll have an ample supply of

sea water in '08????



Otherwise, just be careful of tigers escaping from our zoos. :scared:

[goodgd_yall]

46. California: Non-discrimination laws

It's illegal to discriminate in employment against LGBT people and based on sexual identity. And it's illegal to discriminate LGBT people in adoption.

Smoking is outlawed in public places. Organic food is very accessible---something I didn't appreciate until I travelled to some other states. Proposition 36 which allows non-violent drug offenders to go into a rehab program rather than rot in jail.

[Rincewind]

48. Illinois

All state-wide officers, and both Senators are Democrats. Unfortunately, my Congress critter is repuke.

[maxsolomon]

49. Washington: no more cigarette smoke

in bars, restaurants, etc.

now, when i smell tobacco, i'm surprised.

other than that, no. most regressive state tax structure in the nation.

[nonconformist]

54. KY got a new Democratic governor!

So the election went very well!

[blondeatlast]

55. I'm in Arizona and politically, no. Local government is rife with the worst corruption

imaginable, too.

[rucky]

57. The Buckeyes are playing in the BCS Bowl!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

58. No state income tax here in WA.

[Telly Savalas]

61. Gates BBQ.

[aikoaiko]

62. GA: Free college tuition and books if you have a B average.

The lottery pays for all tuition at public colleges (or defers some of the costs at private colleges) as long as you graduate from high school with a B average or better. Its free at UGA, GATech, or even little GAPerimeter.

If you move to GA, you have to prove yourself for a year, but then the scholarship money kicks in and your last three years are free.

Its a great deal.