What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread, you decide.
Here’s some to start off with.
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We’ll start with a piece on The Compromise That Isn’t.
E.J. Dionne’s assurances to the contrary are wrong. He’s clueless, as usual.
From NationalReview
“On Friday, the Obama administration issued a proposed rule change following from the supposed accommodation they promised a year ago to the controversial, coercive Department of Health and Human Services abortion-drug, contraception, and sterilization mandate. Mark Rienzi is a professor of constitutional law at the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America and an attorney at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and he talks about why the religious-liberty problem remains.”
“It is simply a re-offering of the same unappetizing ideas that have already been explicitly rejected, in hopes that religious objectors will swallow now what they would not swallow a year ago.
That turn of events is a profound disappointment for those of us who had hoped that the administration would reach the easy, obvious, and legally required solution of just exempting all religious objectors. The government obviously has many ways it could get these drugs to people without forcibly involving religious objectors. Instead, the government took a year to think about the issue and came back with essentially the same proposal everyone already rejected last spring. That is an odd kind of “compromise.””
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Panetta seems to want to go out with a bang and a flip of the bird to our military. First he announces that the DoD and military will be paying for same sex partner benefits. And then within days he and the DoD announce a cut in pay for service members. Shows you where their priorities lie. The social experimentation continues.
From CNN
“Just days before he leaves office, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is recommending military pay be limited, effectively decreasing troop salaries next year.
Panetta will recommend to Congress that military salaries be limited to a 1% increase in 2014. The Pentagon has calculated that the Labor Department’s 2014 Employment Cost Index is expected to be above 1% but wants to still cut back on pay because of “budget uncertainties,” a department official told CNN. In 2013, a 1.7% increase was approved, based on the index, which has been the basis for military pay for the last several years.”
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The Obama Phone, Part II.
This is the new and improved version because it benefits a campaign contributor, as well as a loyal voting bloc. It’s win/win baby! Unless you’re one of the millions who subsidize this thru the Universal Service Fee you pay with your cell phone bill. That’s just a fancy name for tax, and make no mistake, this is a tax.
Oh, and did I mention it’s a SmartPhone with internet access? You know, for job hunting. 🙄
From TheWashingtonTimes
“A cellphone company whose top executive has close ties to President Obama lobbied for and won a piece of a major new government push to provide Internet service to low-income job-seekers, even though critics say the company’s smartphones are poorly suited to the task of helping those in the program find work.
The program’s supporters tout it as a way for the unemployed to learn technical skills, to prepare resumes and to search for jobs, but one of the 14 pilot contracts that the FCC awarded went to Miami-based TracFone Wireless Inc.
TracFone CEO F.J. Pollak has been a frequent White House visitor and his wife Abigail has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for both Mr. Obama’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns.
And although TracFone had originally lobbied for the program, critics say its contract would not provide recipients with skills-boosting computers and services, but would supply high-end Android phones, ready to play games and browse Facebook but doing little in the way of getting a job.”
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Wandering Views 
Right AJ, because a legally married, by state laws, soldier should not have a spouse who also receives benefits — like shopping at the PX while he or she is away fighting for the country.
On pay limits well the rest of the feds have had no pay increases and increases in health care costs for the past three years. So now, with the sequester rapidly approaching, the military also receives a cut — albeit a smaller one. Don’t you guys keep saying that the federal government has to tighten its belt? Guess what, the military is federal. Do the math.
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Meanwhile, military dependents of heterosexual married active duty personnel have their benefits cut.
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No drives. Benefits for all military dependents get cut. ALL. You may not like that gay soldiers exist and have families, but they do.
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If the US has to fight a country with a real military, the results are going to be really ugly. (I’m on the road and General Lee isn’t traveling with me.)
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meanwhile the Christian Chaplian is been pressure not to preach about marriage for a Christian is between one man and one woman.. An that they can not have cross on their church because it may offend the poor muslims.
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We were told that the Gay Solider just want to service, that was it. I pointed out that once they got that right, they will be pushing for more benefits for their gay partners. I was told by many people who were gay and their support no, we are not looking for that. Hmmm. Guess I was right again. The Gay Community are not going to stop until their moral values are the standard for the Nation and the Christian Church speech is restricted.
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Roy, it’s the Overton Window at work.
There’s no end to it.
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Chas I believe there is a end.. It will end when the GLBT Community Moral Values will be the standard for the Nation and the Christian Freedom of Speech will be limited…
But we both know the real end is when Christ returns to set up his Kingdom here on earth.
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FYI http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/02/07/obama-gives-himself-permission-to-kill/
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Roy
No one is arguing for limiting your freedom of expression. Chaplains do have aa non denominational role and have a flock that contains more than evangelical christians.
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Whether a state has given them a marriage license is irrelevant CB. It’s just a useless piece of paper on a military base. Just because the Obama admin ignores DOMA, doesn’t mean it’s not still the law of the land. And what does DOMA say on this issue?
Yeah.
And don’t worry, they’ll get the benfits soon, just not the recognition they seek. That’s the real problem they have with it, and this doesn’t fix that to their liking.
http://www.worldmag.com/2013/02/military_launches_doma_offensive
“The military is poised to extend some benefits to the same-sex partners of service members, officials said Tuesday, about 16 months after the Pentagon repealed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has not made a final decision on which benefits, the officials said, but the Pentagon likely will allow same-sex partners access to the on-base commissary and other military subsidized stores, as well as some health and welfare programs.”
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No one is arguing for limiting your freedom of expression
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tell that to the Boy Scouts, to the Christian Chaplains that are being told they can not preaching from God’s Word on marriage. To the Churches that are being pressure to change God’s Word to support the GLBT Community.
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Chaplains do have aa non denominational role and have a flock that contains more than evangelical christians.
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Chaplains have had the freedom to preach God’s Word in their Christian services, but those freedom are being taken away because of a small narrow mind group people who desire to force their values on to the Nation and they desire to silence anyone who speaks out against them.
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I believe we are going to see Mr. Obama attack the Boy Scouts and the Christian Church in his State of the Union speech over the issue of Gay Rights.
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You are flat out wrong about Chaplains in the military CB. Maybe if you SERVED in the trenches like real veterans, you would know that. While Chaplains are to be supportive of everyone’s religious preference and to give the service member direction where they can worship God as their conscience dictates, Chaplains themselves are to preach in accordance with their denomination guidelines and not violate their own conscience. I know this because I worked closely with Chaplains from various denominations while I served this country in the Navy for 16 years.
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What CB does not understand is that Chaplains do have a basic Christian Services for all Christian, but they also have their denomination services… The problem is the Militay is bieng pressure to the preaching of the Word of God.
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What CB does not understand is that Chaplains do have a basic Christian Services for all Christian, but they also have their denomination services… The problem is the Militay is bieng pressure to stop the preaching of the Word of God.
The GLBT Community are pressuing them, the anti- christian Bigots groups are pressuring them.
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“No one is arguing for limiting your freedom of expression.” Tell that to Christian photographers, caterers, adoption agents and fertility doctors who will soon be sued out of business for running their businesses according to their religious beliefs. .
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or school teachers who posted their views on their personal face book page.
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And KBells, we’ve had that discussion — you know I think its wrong that they are being sued.
Roy
What CB does understand is that you have a particular view of what a true Christian (trademark) is. And I’ll tell you what, I’ll stop assuming what you do and don’t know if you stop assuming you understand the first thing about me.
It’s ironic to read arguementation about groups that try to impress their values on others roll off keyboards seemingly with little self awareness.
Joe
True, I’m not a veteran. Untrue that I know zero about the military. Most chaplains that I have met (except the evangelical ones) try to be more ecumenical in their approach.
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It might surprise you CB, I have also worked with the ecumenical ones too. Lutherans mainly. In my 16 years of active duty in the Navy, I only had one evangelical denominational chaplain.
Go enlist in the Military CB and put your life on the line like the rest of us and you might come away with a different point of view.
But now that women will soon be required to serve on the front lines, you might want to make sure your Selective Service Number is on record.
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Liked this quote that I ran across today…
“When more of the people’s sustenance is exacted through the form of taxation than is necessary to meet the just obligations of government and the expense of its economical administration, such exaction becomes ruthless extortion and a violation of the fundamental principles of a free government.”
That was a Democrat before they went all loopy…Grover Cleveland
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Roy
What CB does understand is that you have a particular view of what a true Christian (trademark) is. And I’ll tell you what, I’ll stop assuming what you do and don’t know if you stop assuming you understand the first thing about me.
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My understanding of you is based on what you have written and what you defend and promote.
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It’s ironic to read arguementation about groups that try to impress their values on others roll off keyboards seemingly with little self awareness.
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The Fact Christian are not trying to get people fire for being gay, the same can not be said about the GLT Community and their supporters.
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DG – I worked hand and hand with many Chaplians, I even ran 2 chaplain services for for them because they did not have a minister from my denominational or one close to my denominational.
We had the freedom to preach the Word of God the way God leads us.
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In today Military , the Chaplains and the Christian Soldiers must be careful on what they say, on duty and off duty for fear of being reported as being bigots for standing up for the Christian Values.
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Joe
I have put myself at risk in service to my country — not in the military though. It is not only the military or its members that face risks from their service. And I have lost friends in service to their country — but not in the military. You might ask before you preach.
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Yea right CB. When you have Russian Migs strafing you, then let’s talk. The military is a different kettle of fish than any other form or public service. It is more dangerous especially when you are in a War Zone and it is more stressful on family members because you can’t tell your family where you are, what you are doing or if you will ever come back alive
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If CB did what he said he did, he then have put his life on the line if he worked in Nations that do not like us.
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I agree that there is different between Military Combat and what CB did.
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Which I have Roy (and I am a she not a he). And I would point out thhat you need not serve in a nation that dislikes us to be at risk. A few ears back a friend of mine died in Tanzania – country that is friendly to us.
Joe its obvious that serving in combat is not the same. Equally obvious that conversation on this topic is not possible.
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CB, you may think it is wrong but it is being done. There is a large and loud faction of the GLBT community who want to punish all who disagree with them. I think people should have the right to decide who they live with, who they leave their stuff or their kids to and who visits them in the hospital. I just don’t think they have the right to force me to affirm those decisions. The right to freedom of speech and religious expression are in the Constitution. The right to marry who ever you want is not. Until the first rights are safe I will not support the second.
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sorry I did not know you were a she.
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http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/02/assassin_in_chief.html
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