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News/Politics 7-24-13

What’s interesting in the news today?

As always, open thread. 🙂

Too late, you own it.

From TheWashingtonPost  “The landmark health-reform law passed in 2010 has never been very popular and always highly partisan, but a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds that a group of once loyal Democrats has been steadily turning against Obamacare: Democrats who are ideologically moderate  or conservative.”

Meanwhile the majority of the public remains against it as well. And the public also believes healthcare will get worse because of it.

From Rasmussen  “Voters continue to give high marks to the health care they now receive but are more pessimistic than ever about the short-term future of the health care system in this country.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 24% of Likely U.S. Voters now expect the U.S. health care system to get better over the next couple of years. Sixty-one percent (61%) think that system will get worse. That’s up four points from a month ago and up 13 points since February.”

Repeal it, or shut ‘er down. Either works. 🙂

From TheHill  “ObamaCare is at the center of a rapidly escalating fight that threatens to  shut the government down this fall.

Senate Republicans, including two members of the leadership, are coalescing  around a proposal to block any government funding resolution that includes money  for the implementation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.”

And an update to a previous story.

From NationalReview  “President Obama has had a poor record of job creation, but at least one small economic sector is doing well: community organizing.

The Department of Health and Human Services is about to hire an army of “patient navigators” to inform Americans about the subsidized insurance promised by Obamacare and assist them in enrolling. These organizers will be guided by the new Federal Data Hub, which will give them access to reams of personal information compiled by federal agencies ranging from the IRS to the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration. “The federal government is planning to quietly enact what could be the largest consolidation of personal data in the history of the republic,” Paul Howard of the Manhattan Institute and Stephen T. Parente, a University of Minnesota finance professor, wrote in USA Today. No wonder that there are concerns about everything from identity theft to the ability of navigators to use the system to register Obamacare participants to vote.”

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Next we have a leftist caught with a racist sign at a George Zimmerman rally. She was pretending to be with them in order to make them look bad. Of course this is easy to accomplish when you have like-minded leftist in the media willing to run with a false story.

From GatewayPundit  “A photo from the Houston pro-Zimmerman counter-rally of the NBPP anti-Zimmerman rally picked up by the AP shows a woman holding a sign that read, “Racist & Proud.”

“Austin resident Renee Vaughan echoed the sign’s ugly sentiments by yelling, “We’re racist. We’re proud. We’re better because we’re white,” at the Martin group as they passed, according to the Chronicle.

The act to smear the Zimmerman supporters as racists with a leftist plant worked as the photo and comment was picked up and spread worldwide.“

She’s also a community organizer. What were the chances huh? 🙄

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And since we’re on the subject of leftist hacks pretending to be something they’re not, here’s one pretending she’s a journalist.

From CNSNews  “Noting the worldwide excitement surrounding Kate Middleton’s pregnancy, MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry compared the hoopla surrounding the British royal birth to Texas abortion politics, and then offered her own definition of viability:

“When does life begin? I submit the answer depends an awful lot on the feeling of the parents. A powerful feeling – but not science,” Harris-Perry said on her show Sunday. “The problem is that many of our policymakers want to base sweeping laws on those feelings.”

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Here’s a not shocking story.

From HotAir  “The analysis from Media Research Center comes as no shock to those of us keeping track of both stories as they unfolded, of course, but it’s noteworthy nonetheless. The broadcast networks created a new heroine in tennis shoes in Wendy Davis while barely mentioning Kermit Gosnell over a much longer period:

Davis, a previously unheard of Texas state senator, staged a filibuster last month in a successful bid to derail a late-term abortion bill. Cheered by rowdy pro-abortion activists, Davis spoke for 11 hours against a bill outlawing abortions after 20 months of pregnancy and mandating that abortion clinics meet the same sanitary and safety standards as any other Texas medical facility.”

“In the 19 days since her June 25 filibuster, ABC, CBS and NBC have devoted 40 minutes, 48 seconds of their morning and evening news programs to stories including Davis. That’s more than three times the 13 minutes 30 seconds they gave Gosnell during the entire 58 days of the murder trial.”

Well the media loves to push stories that promote their pro-abortion views. Stories that show the true horror of those views, not so much.

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Next up, some friendly fire for Anthony Weiner over his latest and continuing stupidity.

From TheNYTimes  “At some point, the full story of Anthony Weiner and his sexual relationships and texting habits will finally be told. In the meantime, the serially evasive Mr. Weiner should take his marital troubles and personal compulsions out of the public eye, away from cameras, off the Web and out of the race for mayor of New York City.”

“That’s ridiculous and speaks to a familiar but repellent pattern of misleading and evasion. It’s up to Mr. Weiner if he wants to keep running, to count on voters to forgive and forget and hand him the keys to City Hall. But he has already disqualified himself.”

Sure it’s a Blind Squirrel moment for the NYT, but I’ll still give them credit for stating the obvious.

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20 thoughts on “News/Politics 7-24-13”

  1. Anthony Weiner is the perfect leader for the Democtatic Party and New York City. He is completely without morals, a socialist and an effective demagogue. Don’t write him off yet.

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  2. Some like to text, others like to walk along the Appalachian Trail. Lets stop pretending the masses really care about the social and moral foibles of their leadership.

    I believe the Republican House has repealed the ACA 40 times since it was implemented. Have they done anything else …… a little more initiative and creative is needed in order for Americans to get their money’s worth. Given the constant barrage of propaganda against the ACA I’m not surprised it doesn’t do well in polling in fact Its held up remarkably well.

    Obama’s job creation is fairly good — its all been in the private sector with the job cuts in the public sector keeping the numbers down.

    http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/tag/bikini-graph/

    In fact the ratio of gov’t workers to the population is now lower than in the Reagan era.

    . In fact, public-sector employment (i.e. federal, state, and local government jobs) declined in 10 of the past 12 months, in sharp contrast to 29 consecutive months of private-sector job growth. Indeed, falling public employment has been among the largest contributors to unemployment in the United States since the end of the Great Recession.

    http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/jobs/posts/2012/08/03-jobs-greenstone-looney

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  3. HRW,

    Math is hard, and statistics are easy to manipulate with fuzzy math.

    http://www.factcheck.org/2012/06/obamas-economic-sleight-of-hand/

    “In Cleveland, President Barack Obama claimed he created more private-sector jobs in the past 27 months than President George W. Bush created “during the entire seven years before this crisis.” But that’s like comparing apples and mangoes. The president is absolving himself of responsibility for the savage recession he inherited, while assigning to Bush responsibility for the recession that began within weeks of his taking office in 2001.

    The fact is, the economy has gained just about the same number of private-sector jobs (Obama’s preferred measure) in the 27 months since the most recent job slump hit bottom as it did in the 27 months following the bottom of the first Bush slump. And looking at total jobs — the broader and more customary measure — Bush’s post-slump job creation record was significantly better than Obama’s.

    And that’s not the only dubious use of statistics the president made during his economic speech in Cleveland on June 14.”

    “Just for the record — and to show how easily one side or another can shade the truth by clever selection of the time period it wants to discuss — here’s the monthly change in total jobs (total nonfarm employment, seasonally adjusted) for the full Bush presidency, and Obama’s term so far.”

    And just for the record, the misleading chart they refer to is the one you linked too.

    Here’s more.

    http://reason.com/blog/2012/09/14/obamas-highly-misleading-claim-about-pri

    “President Obama has taken to claiming that “our businesses have gone back to basics and created over 4 million jobs in the last 27 months —more private sector jobs than were created during the entire seven years before this crisis — in a little over two years.” This is technically true. It’s also highly misleading.

    That’s because President Obama isn’t making a fair comparison. Instead, as the author of the Political Math blog handily explains, he’s carefully selecting date ranges that allow him to maximize the number of jobs he can take credit for creating while minimizing the number created under his predecessor, George W. Bush.”

    “There’s another reason Obama uses the metric he does. It relies on just one measure of employment: an establishment survey that mainly relies on data culled from businesses. But BLS also publishes a second measure of employment that relies on surveys of individuals. And on that measure, President Bush seems to have done much better. ”

    Yawn. Next.

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  4. From The Hill, via Drudge
    I can’t tell from here if the video works.

    Congress to probe lethal SEAL crash
    By Bob Cusack – 07/24/13 05:00 AM ET

    Congress has launched an investigation of the helicopter crash that killed 30 Americans in Afghanistan, including members of the Navy’s elite SEAL Team 6 unit, The Hill has learned. [WATCH VIDEO]
    The victims’ families say the Pentagon hasn’t provided answers to their many questions about the deadly attack, which took place on Aug. 6, 2011, three months after Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by Team 6 forces.
    …………
    The Chinook was shot down by Afghan militants, and all 38 on board perished. Among the dead were 30 Americans, including 22 Navy SEALS, seven Afghan soldiers and one Afghan translator. Their bodies were later recovered, but the helicopter’s black box was not. Pentagon officials have said that it could not be recovered, citing a flash flood that happened soon after the assault.
    All the bodies were cremated. The Pentagon has defended the cremation to the soldiers’ families, saying the bodies were badly burned.
    Chaffetz, however, said he has seen a photo of a deceased SEAL that was not.
    “The body I saw didn’t need to be cremated,” Chaffetz said, adding that the Department of Defense’s explanation of its failure to find the helicopter’s black box seems “awfully odd.”

    : http://thehill.com/homenews/house/313039-congress-to-probe-lethal-seal-crash#ixzz2Zyj3hkL1

    Not only is it strange that they were cremated, it’s especially strange to me that they couldn’t find the black box. Those things are almost indestructible. I doubt the flood bit.

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  6. Anon — according to fact check Obama helped create as many private sector jobs as Bush in a similar time period. However, the National Review said he had a poor record of job creation …. did they say that about Bush? As for total jobs, its true Obama (and state governors) have decreased the size of the government as opposed to Bush who increased the size of gov’t and thus has less total jobs created but does the National Review and other right wing commentators want Obama to expand government as much as Bush. The National Review comments on jobs for “community organizers” or “patient guides” — a gov’t agency actually hiring is going against the trend something the Nat’l Rev,. doesn’t mention.

    I would think a business survey is more accurate than individual ….. are they implying businesses aren’t as truthful. If so, perhaps we need to stop letting them self regulate.

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  7. Chas — similar to Tillman, I would think there’s a cover up on the part of DND … the pilot may have been flying too many hours, on speed, or simply ill trained. Hence the missing black box. Also, they may have removed black boxes from many military aircraft to evade oversight and this was one of them.

    But it may be that some bodies were badly mangled and they decided to cremate all rather than be forced to decide.

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  8. I’m trying to think if I’ve ever known that to happen–with the SEALs. They historically never leave a man behind, even if they’re carrying a body. This situation doesn’t strike anyone as peculiar?

    SEAL families also were very upset the team that took out bin Laden was named. Historically, military operation units are not cited because of security problems.

    As a Navy wife, I saw that with the Stark incident some 20 years ago. The USS Stark shot down an Iranian civilian airline by mistake. Several months later the CO’s wife heard a strange sound in the back of her van while stopped at a light in San Diego. She got out to investigate and found a bomb strapped to the back axel.

    That sent a chill through military families around the world.

    When the USS Lousiville shot the first missile of the Gulf War aimed at Saddam Hussein, I was totally shocked. Submarines had NEVER been named before. Two years later, I met and became friends with the CO’s wife at the time. She told me she got a call at work from the command warning the boat had been named. They offered to take her and her young child into a secure location because of possible recrimination. She elected not to do that, but lived under a heightened sense of alert for a very long time.

    I gasped when the president named the SEAL unit. The families expressed great dismay. And then 22 from that same unit were killed in this mysterious accident.

    😦

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  9. “Chaplain’s Corner: No Atheists in Foxholes: Chaplains Gave All in World War II”

    By Lt. Col. Kenneth Reyes

    Many have heard the familiar phrase, “There is no such thing as an atheist in a fox hole.”

    Where did this come from?

    Research I verified in an interview with former World War II prisoner of war Roy Bodine (my friend) indicates the phrase has been credited to Father William Cummings.

    As the story goes, Father Cummings was a civilian missionary Catholic priest in the Philippines.

    The phrase was coined during the Japanese attack at Corregidor.

    During the siege, Cummings had noticed non-Catholics were attending his services.

    Some he knew were not Catholic, some were not religious and some were even known atheists.

    Life-and-death experiences prompt a reality check.

    Even the strongest of beliefs can change, and, I may add, can go both ways – people can be drawn to or away from “faith.”

    With the pending surrender of allied forces to the Japanese, Cummings uttered the famous phrase “There is no such thing as an atheist in a fox hole.”

    In one of my many discussions with Roy, he distinctly remembered a period on the “Hell Ships” – these were ships the Japanese used to bring POWs from the Philippines back to Japan.

    They were unmarked and thus ‘fair game’ for attacks from the allies from the air and sea.

    Of the 3,000-plus POWs listed on the ships, only 180 survived the journey.

    “When our own planes were attacking us,” Roy said, “I remember Father Cummings calming us down by reciting the Lord’s Prayer and offering up prayers on our behalf.

    For a brief moment I did not hear the yells and screams of dying men as our boat was attacked by our own men.”

    He went on to say, “There was a peaceful quiet during the attack that I cannot explain nor have experienced since.”

    Later on during the trip to Japan, Cummings, after giving his food to others who needed it more, succumbed to his own need and died of starvation.

    Everyone expresses some form of faith every day, whether it is religious or secular.

    Some express faith by believing when they get up in the morning they will arrive at work in one piece, thankful they have been given another opportunity to enjoy the majesty of the day; or express relief the doctor’s results were negative.

    The real question is, “Is it important to have faith in ‘faith’ itself or is it more important to ask, ‘What is the object of my faith?’”

    Roy never affirmed or expressed whether his faith was rooted in religion or not, but for a moment in time on the “Hell Ships,” he believed in Cummings’ faith.

    What is the root or object of your faith?

    Is it something you can count on in times of plenty or loss; peace or chaos; joy or sorrow; success or failure?

    Is it something you can count on in times of plenty or loss; peace or chaos; joy or sorrow; success or failure?

    What is ‘faith’ to you?

    —
    Chaplain Ordered to Remove Religious Essay From Military Website http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes…y-website.html

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  10. yes, this is happen in the military and we wonder why this is also happen in the military Fort Carson investigates ‘several’ soldiers in sexual assault of girls http://gazette.com/fort-carson-inves…rticle/1503908… As the war of the Christian Faith moves forward under Obama’s watch, we will see sinful behavior expand.

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  11. HRW,

    And how many of those “jobs created” were of the part-time, no benefits variety? Between ObamaCare and his numerous and burdensome new regs. that’s all companies are willing to take on.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/07/22/on-the-economy-obama-is-faltering-under-his-own-terms/

    “President Obama thinks “Washington has largely taken its eye off the ball” on economic issues, and he’s planning a batch of speeches this week to make the case for more action. Good. Because by Obama’s own measures, the economy needs a lot of help.

    The president has watched some of his biggest economic initiatives falter since winning reelection. He promised 1 million new manufacturing jobs by the end of 2016. But factory employment has fallen for the last four months, and on net is only 13,000 jobs toward that goal.”
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    http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/07/14/the-untold-unemployment-story-a-loss-of-162000-full-time-jobs-in-june/

    “You would not have gotten the real story about the June unemployment report on the front page of any newspaper. If you can find a reporter who can think for himself or herself, he or she is a treasure who should be promoted to run the entire paper.

    But since you are already here, the real story is available if you read on. There were no net full time jobs created last month. The number of full time jobs actually declined by at least 162,000 on net last month.

    All of the net new jobs created last month were part time jobs. The Labor Department reported, “The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons…increased by 322,000 to 8.2 million in June. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.” “

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  12. And I posted these on this thread on 7-17.

    You would already know this if you paid attention. 🙂

    http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/311393-carney-suggestion-obamacare-prevents-full-time-hiring-belied-by-the-facts#ixzz2ZElyb3oi

    “White House press secretary Jay Carney on Tuesday dismissed reports that some employers were hiring more part-time employees because of the president’s signature healthcare law.

    “The data reflects that there is not support for the proposition that businesses are not hiring full-time employees because of the Affordable Care Act,” Carney told reporters.

    According to The Wall Street Journal, employers have added more part-time employees — about 93,000 a month — in 2013 than full-time workers — averaging about 22,000 per month. That’s a reversal from 2012, when employers hired 31,000 part-time workers and 171,000 full-time ones per month.”
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    And it’s not gonna be getting better. Part-time will be the new norm.

    http://washingtonexaminer.com/74-of-small-businesses-will-fire-workers-cut-hours-under-obamacare/article/2533131

    “Despite the administration’s controversial decision to delay forcing companies to join Obamacare for a year, three-quarters of small businesses are still making plans to duck the costly law by firing workers, reducing hours of full-time staff, or shift many to part-time, according to a sobering survey released by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.”

    “— The majority (61 percent) of small businesses do not have plans to hire next year.

    — Concerns about regulation have increased significantly from 35 percent last quarter to 42 percent now.”

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  15. I will confess that I will vote for a scumbag I agree with over a nice guy who will screw up the city/state/country. Sometimes those are the only choices you get.

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  16. Part time workers and temp help has been an on-going issue since the late 70s. Of course, many of Obama’s jobs were PT and temp, so were Bush’s, Clinton’s and Reagan’s. To return manufacturing jobs to the US one or more things has to happen; the price of shipping needs to escalate, free trade policies have to be reversed, more regulations are needed to prevent the use of temp or PT, unionization and/or labor reform needs to occur in low wage countries, etc. It might also help to have the state responsible for health care or health care insurance. Its the cost of health care insurance which motivates GM for example to continue production in Ontario where basic health care is a provincial gov’t responsibility,

    The use of temp and PT to evade ACA regulations is part of the general trend which was occurring prior to the ACA. PT and temps were already used to evade union rules, state and federal regulation, benefit requirements, etc. Its nothing new. However this mentality is not beneficial in the long term as this article in Forbes comparing Costco to Walmart illustrates.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/04/17/walmart-pays-workers-poorly-and-sinks-while-costco-pays-workers-well-and-sails-proof-that-you-get-what-you-pay-for/

    Of course this shenanigans is a good illustration why managed private competition (Obama and Dole’s plan) is the wrong approach and a single payer health care system would have been a better approach.

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